Skip to main content

Full text of "History Of The Christian Church Vol.Iv"

See other formats 


129721 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


HI8TOET 


CHKISTIAN  OHTJECH 


PHILIP  SCHAFF 


Chrhtianw  mm :  Christiani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto 


VOL.  IV. 

MEDLEVAL  CHRISTIANITY 

FKOM  GittsjGORY  I  TO  GREGOKY  VII 

A.D.  590-1073 


WM*  B.  EERDMANS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

GRAND  RAPIDS  MICHIGAN 


COPYRIGHT,  1910,  BY 

CHARLES  SCRIBNKR'S  BONB 

Reproduced  by  special  arrangement 
with  the  original  publisher 


Library  of  Congress  Number  39*3700 


PHOTOLITHOPRIOTED  BY  GUSHING  -  MALLOY,  INC, 
ANN  ARBOR,  MICHIGAN,  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


CONTENTS 


MEDI^EVAJL  CHRISTIANITY 

FROM  A.  D.  590-1517. 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE 

GENERAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  MEDIAEVAL  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

2  1.  Sources  and  Literature, 1 

g  2.  The  Middle  Age.    Limits  and  General  character,         ...  5 

2  3.  The  Nations  of  Mediaeval  Christianity,  Kelt,  Teuton,  Slav,       .  7 

J  4.  Genius  of  Mediaeval  Christianity, 11 

2  5.  Periods  of  the  Middle  Age, 14 


FOURTH  PERIOD. 

THE  CHURCH  AMONG  THE  BARBAKIAm 

ffirom  Gregory  I.  to  Gregory  VII* 

A.  D.  590—1049  (1073). 

CHAPTER  II- 
THE  CoisrvBESioK  OF  THE  NORTHERN  ASTD  WESTERN  BARBARIANS. 

2  6.  Character  of  Mediaeval  Missions, 17 

I*  The  Conversion  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland. 

2    7.  Literature,        .                              r  19 

2  '"8.  The  Britons, 22 

2  ^.  The  Anglo-Saxons, 27 

2  #0.  The  Mission  of  Gregory  and  Augustin.    Conversion  of  Kent,     .  30 

2<-<Tl.  Antagonism  of  the  Saxon  and  British  Clergy,  .  35 

\  12.  Conversion  of  the  other  Kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy,  .        .       .  37 

2  13.  Conformity  to  Borne  Established.    Wilfrid,  Theodore,  Bede,  .  39 

2 1^4.  Conversion  of  Ireland.    St.  Patrick,  St.  Bridget,                         .  43 
„  (Critical  Note  on  St.  Patrick). 

245.  The  Irish  Church  after  St.  Patrick, 52 

vii 


vni  CONTENTS. 

TAOE 

3  #6*.  Subjection  of  Ireland  to  English  and  Roman  Rule,     *       .       .  58 

\  ,17.  Conversion  oi'  Scotland.    St.  Ninuui  and  St.  Iventigern,          .  01 

\  18.  St.  Columba  and  the  Monastery  of  lona, tf  \ 

\  19.  The  Culdees, 712 

\  20.  Extinction  of  the  Keltic  Church,  and  Triumph  of  Rome  under 

King  David  I., 75 

II.  The  Conversion  of  France,  Germany,  and  Adjacent  Countries. 

General  Literature, 77 

2  21.  Arian  Christianity  among  the  Goths  and  other  Gorman  Tribetf,  .  77 

Conversion  of  Olovis  and  the  Franks, 80 

.  OolumbanuH  and  the  Irish  Missionaries  on  the  Continent,    .        .  84 

?,*  21.  German  Missionaries  before  Boniface, 8!) 

g  25.  Boniface,  the  Apostle  of  Germany, 92 

2  26.  Pupils  Of  Boniface.    Willibald,  Gregory  of  Utrecht,  Sturm  of 

Fultla, 100 

g.  .27.  (Conversion  of  the  Saxons.    Charlemagne  and  Alcuin.    The  IIc- 

liand  and  the  Gospel  Harmony,     ......    10S5 

HI.  The  Cvnver&ion  of  Scandinavia. 
General  Literature, *       100 

3  28,  Scandinavian  Heathenism, 107 

Christianization  of  Denmark.    St.  Anfigar,      ,       *       ,       „       HO 

0.  Christianization  of  Sweden, .    118 

g  *31.  Christianization  of  Norway  and  Iceland,         .  120 

IV.  The  Christianimtion  of  the  Slavs. 

§  32.  General  Survey, 124 

g  33.  Christian  Missions  among  the  Wonds,      .       ,  "    .       .       .  12(1 
g  34.  Cyrillus  and  Methodius,  the  Apostles  of  the  Slavs,    Christioniza* 

tion  of  Moravia,  Bohemia  and  Poland,    .       .       .       .       .  12H 

g  $5.  Conversion  of  the  Bulgarians,          .       *       ,       .       ,       *  j&| 

g  36.  Conversion  of  the  Magyars, 1,V> 

%*&J.  Christianizatioa  of  Russia,        .*...,.  135 

CHAPTER  III. 

MOHAMMEDANISM  IN  ITS  KBLATIOMT  TO  CBUUSTIANXTY, 

g  38.  Literature, ,       .       *       4       ,       t  143 

g  ^9.  Statistics  and  Chronological  Table, 14B 

g  JK).  Position  of  Mohammedanism'in  Church  History,       .       ,       .  150 

g  dd.  The  Home,  and  the  Antecedents  of  Mam,      *       »       *       .  155 

g  42.  Life  and  Character  of  Mohammed, IftO 

g  ,43.  The  Conquests  of  IsUm, 17  j 

g  44.  The  Koran  and  the  Bible,  .  174 

2  45.  The  Mohammedan  Beligion,   *«***•»  183 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PAGE 

§  46.  Mohammedan  Worship, .    190 

I  47.  Christian  Polemics  against  Islam.    Note  on  Mormoaism,  195 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THB  PAPAL  HIEBARCHY  AND  THE  HOLY  BOMAN  EMPIRE. 

\  48.  General  Literature  on  the  Papacy, 203 

Chronological  Table  of  the  Popes,  Anti-Popes  and  Emperors  from 
Gregory  I.  A.  D.  590  to  Leo.  XIII.  A.  D.  1878,         .        -        205 

Gregory  the  Great.    A.  D.  590-604, 211 

*$  51.  Gregory  and  the  Universal  Episcopate 218 

§  52.  The  Writings  of  Gregory, 225 

v#  53.  The  Papacy  from  Gregory  I.  to  Gregory  II     A.  D.  604-715,  .        230 
g  54.  From  Gregory  II.  to  Zacharias.    A.  D.  715-741,         .       .        .    23J 
v,  g  55.  Alliance  of  the  Papacy  with  the  New  Monarchy  of  the  Franks. 

Pepin  and  the  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter.    A.  D.  741-755,      .       232 

4"56.  Charlemagne.    A.  D  768-814. 236 

,%  57,  Founding  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire.  A.D.  800.  Charlemagne 

and  Leo  IIL, 250 

4  58.  Survey  of  the  History  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire,   .       .        .255 
,  g  59.  The  Papacy  and  the  Empire  from  the  Death  of  Charlemagne  to 

Nicolas  I.    A.  D.  814-858.    Myth  of  the  Papess  Joan,       .       264 

J  60.  The  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals, 266 

{ 161.  Nicolas  I.    April,  858—Nov.  13,  867, 273 

{  62  Adrian  II.  and  John  VIIL,  A.  D.  867-882,  .    277 

\  63.  Degradation  of  the  Papacy  in  the  Tenth  Century,   ...       279 

\  64.  Interference  of  Otho  the  Great, 288 

g  65.  Second  Degradation  of  the  Papacy  from  Otho  I.  to  Henry  IIT. 

A.  D.  973-1046 293 

$  66.  Henry  III.  and  the  Synod  of  Sufcri.    Deposition  of  Three  Rival 

Popes.    A.  D.  1046 299 


CHAPTEB  V. 

THE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  EASTERN  AND  WESTERN-  CHURCHES  AND  THEIR 

SBPABATION. 

g  67.  Sources  and  Literature  on  the  Oriental  Schism,  ....    304 
Consensus  and  Dissensus  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,    306 

Causes  of  Separation, 309 

The  Patriarch  and  the  Pope.    Photius  and  Nicolas,   ,       .       .312 
-4  71-  Progress  and  Completion  of  the  Schism.    Cerularius.    1054.   .      317 
Fruitless  Attempts  at  Eeunion,  ...'...    321 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB  VI. 
MORALS  AND  RELIGION. 

?  73.  Literature, 32ft 

1 74.  General  Character  of  Mediaeval  Morals,                        t  327 

§  75.  Clerical  Morals, 330 

1 70.  Domestic  Life, 333 

\  77.  Slavery, 334 

2  78.  Feuds  and  Private  War.    The  Truce  of  God,  339 

g  79.  The  Ordeal, 341 

?  80.  The  Torture, .348 

\  81.  Christian  Charity, 355 


CHAPTEB  VII. 

MONASTICISM- 

2  82.  Use  of  Convents  in  the  Middle  Ages,      .       ....       363 

\  83.  St.  Benedict,  St.  Nilus,  St.  Bomuald, 364 

2  84.  The  Convent  of  Cluny,     ........       307 


CHAPTEB  VI It. 

CHURCH  Dnorauonu 

§  85.  The  Penitential  Books, 871 

Jj-86.  Eccleaiaatical  Punishments.    Excommunication,  Anathema,  In* 

terdict, 376 

2  87.  Penance  and  Indulgence, $81 


CHAPTEB  IX. 

CHTCBOH  AND  STATIC. 

\  88.  Legislation  .    .  386 

\  89.  The  Roman  Law,         .........  388 

290  The  Capitularies  of  Charlemagne, 390 

\  91.  English  Legislation, 393 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTEB  X. 

WORSHIP  AND  CEREMONIES. 

PAGE 

\  92.  The  Mass, 397 

\  93.  The  Sermon, 399 

\  94.  Church  Poetry.    Greek  Hymns  and  Hymnists,  ....  402 

2  95.  Latin  Hymnody.    Literature, 416 

g  96.  Latin  Hymns  and  Hymnists,       .......  420 

\  97.  The  Seven  Sacraments, 436 

2  98.  The  Organ  and  the  Bell, 439 

\  99.  The  Worship  of  Saints, 442 

£  100.  The  Worship  of  Images.    Literature.    Different  Theories,        .  447 

,  \  101.  The  Iconoclastic  War,  and  the  Synod  of  754,         ...  454 

4  102.  The  Eestoration  of  Image- Worship  and  the  Seventh  (Ecumenical 

Council,  A.  D.  787, 459 

5  103.  Iconoclastic  Reaction  and  Final  Triumph  of  Image- Worship. 

A.  D.  842, 464 

\  104.  The  Caroline  Bookq  and  the  Frankish  Church,  ...  465 

\  105.  Evangelical  Reformers.  Agobard  of  Lyons  and  Claudius  of  Turin,  470 

CHAPTER  XL 
DOCTRINAI.  CONTROVERSIES. 

2  106.  General  Survey 475 

\  107.  I.  The  PROCESSION  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 476 

§  108.  The  Arguments  for  and  against  the  Filioque,      ....  484 

g  109.  II.  The  MONOTHELETIC  Controversy.    Literature,  .       .       .  489 

3  110.  The  Doctrine  of  Two  Wills  in  Christ, 490 

?.  111.  History  of  Monothelctiam  and  Dyotheletism,          ...  494 
\  112,  The  Sixth  (Ecumenical  Council.    A.D.  680,      .       .       .       .499 

g  113.  The  Heresy  of  Honoring 500 

\  114.  Concilium  Qninisextom,    A-D.  692, 507 

J  115.  Reaction  of  Monotheletism.    The  Maronites,  ....  510 
g  116.  Ill-  The  APOPTIONIST  Controversy.    Literature,       .       .       .511 

g  117.  History  of  Adoptionism, 513 

1 118.  Doctrine  of  Adoptionism, 517 

\  119.  TV.  The  PRBDKSTINAEIAN  Controversy.    Literature     „       .  522 

g  120.  Gottwhalk  and  Rabanus  Maurus, 525 

2  121.  Oottnchalk  and  Hinemar, 528 

5  122.  The  Contending  Theories  of  Predestination,  and  the  Victory  of 

Semi-Augufttiniamsm, 530 

1 123.  The  Doctrine  of  Hootiw  Erigena  on  Predestination  and  Free  Will  539 

1 124.  V.  The  ETJOHARISTIC  Controversies.    Literature,      .       .       .  543 
J  125.  The  Two  Theories  of  the  Lord's  Supper,         ....  544 


xn  CONTENTS. 

PAOR 

\  126.  The  Theory  of  Paschaaius  Badhertus, r>.|<> 

2  127.  The  Theory  of  Eatranmus, Mi) 

$  128   The  Berengar  Controversy, *  ftfrj 

8  129.  Berengar's  Theory  of  the  Lord's  Supper,        ....  r>04 

2  130  Lanfranc  and  the  Triumph  of  TranHuhstantiation,      .       .       .  <%7 


CHAPTER  XIL 
HEKETICAL  SKCTS. 

g  131.  The  PaulicianB, 571? 

\  Itt2.  The  Euchites  and  other  Sects  iu  the  East, 578 

1 133,  The  New  Mauichseans  in  the  West, 680 


CHAPTER  X1IL 
TUB  STATE  OF  LEAKNINU. 

g  134  Literature, 583 

\  135.  Literary  Character  of  the  early  Middle  A#w,         .       .       .  W* 

g  130.  Learning  in  the  Eastern  Churchy f>8fi 

3  137.  Christian  Platonism  and  the  Pseudo-Dionynian  Writingn,       .  T)H9 

g  138.  Ignorance  In  the  We«t,       ..." 0(M) 

§  139.  Educational  Efforts  of  the  T^atin  Ohurch,         ....  004 

\  140.  Charles  the  Great,  an<l  (1harl<w  the  Bald,     .  (U4 

\  141.  King  Alfred,  and  Education  iu  England,  618 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

BlOGBAPmCAL  SlOJTOim  OF  TIT*]  EoOLKSrASTIOAXi 

2  142.  Ohronologist  Lint  of  the  Principal  Ecclesiastical  Writer**  trow 

the  Sixth  to  the  Twelfth  Century,       .       .       .       .       .  621 

I.  GBBEK  AUTIIOES. 

\  143.  St.  Maximus  Confessor, 622 

J144  Rfc.  John  of  Damaflcus, m\ 

\  145.  Photius, 6IJG 

2  146.  Simeon  Metaphrastes, ,  642 

\  147.  (Ecuraonius, 64J1 

\  148.  Theophylact, .  643 

\  149.  Michael  Pselins,      .       ...       k       ....  046 

\  150.  Euthyraius  Zigabenus 647 

\  151.  Eustathius  of  Thessalonica, ,648 

\  152.  Nicetas  Acorninatos, 652 


CONTENTS.  xin 
II.  LATIN  ATJTHOBS. 

PAGE 

g  153    Cas&iodorus, 653 

g  154.  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  .                                  658 

g  155.  St  Isidore  of  Seville, 662 

g  156.  The  Venerable  Bede, 669 

g  157.  Paul  the  Deacon, 677 

g  158   St.  Paulinus  of  Aquileia, 681 

g  159.  Alcuin, 684 

g  160.  St.  Liudger,  ...                 691 

g  161.  Theodulph  of  Orleans,      .  " 695 

g  162.  St.  JBipl, 699 

g  163    Amalarius, 701 

g  104    Einhard, ,...,.  704 

g  165.  Smaragdus 709 

g  166   Jonas  of  Orleans, .  711 

g  167.  Babanus  Maurus, 713 

g  168    Haymo  of  JIalberstadt, 72y 

g  169    Walahfrid  Strabo, 729 

g  170.  Floras  Ma^ister  of  Lyons, 733 

g  171    Servatns  Lupus, 735 

g  172    Druthmar, ....  739 

g  173.  St  Paschasius  Badbertus, 741 

%  174.  Katramnus,                             , 746 

g  175.  Hincmar  of  Bheims, 750 

g  176.  Seolus  Erigena, 761 

8  177    Anaatasius         ....'. 774 

g  178.  Eatherius  of  Verona, 776 

g  179.  Gerbort  (Sylvester  II.), 777 

g  180.  Fulbert  of  Chartrea, 782 

\  181.  Bodulfus  Glaber.    Adam  of  Bremen 785 

\  182.  St.  Peter  Damiani, 787 

ALPHABETICAL  ItfiDTGX 793 


HISTORY 


OF 


MEDIEVAL  CHRISTIANITY 

FROM  A.D.590  TO  1517. 


CHAPTER  I. 
GENERAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  MEDIAEVAL  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

§  1.  Son/roes  and  IM&rcdwre. 


POTTHAST  :  JSibliotheea  JERstorica  Medii  Acwi.     Wegweiser  durch 
die  Geschichtswerfa  des  Europdischen  Mittelalters  von  375-1500.    Ber- 
lin, 1862.    Supplement,  1868. 
The  mediaeval  literature  embraces  four  distinct  branches, 

1.  The  Romano-Germanic  or  Western  Christian; 

2,  The  Graco-Byzantine  or  Eastern  Christian; 
3*  The  Talmudic  and  Rabbinical; 

4.  The  Arabic  and  Mohammedan. 
We  notice  here  only  the  first  and  second  ;  the  other  two  will  be  mentioned 

in  subdivisions  as  far  as  they  are  connected  with  church  history, 
The  Christian  literature  consists  partly  of  documentary  sources,  partly  of 

historical  works.    We  confine  ourselves  here  to  the  most  important 

works  of  a  more  general  character.    Books  referring  to  particular 

countries  and  sections  of  church  history  will  be  noticed  in  the 

progress  of  the  narrative. 
I.  DOCUMENTARY  SOURCES. 
They  are  mostly  in  Latin—  the  official  language  of  the  Western  Church,— 

and  in  Greek,  —  the  official  language  of  the  Eastern  Church. 


2  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH    IIIBTOBV. 

(1)  For  the  history  of  missions :  the  letters  and  biographies  of  mis- 
sionaries. 

(2)  For  church  polity  and  government:  the  official  letters  of  popes, 
patriarchs,  and  bishops. 

The  documents  of  the  papal  court  embrace  (a)  Rcgcsta  (m/wtfra),  the 
transactions  of  the  various  branches  of  the  papal  government  from 
A.  D.  111)8-1572,  deposited  in  the  Vatican  library,  and  dillieulL  of 
access,  (b)  J®pi*tofa  decretalex,  which  constitute  the  basis  of  the 
Corpus  juris  canonici,  brought  to  a  close  in  1318.  («)  The  bull* 
(butta,  a  seal  or  stamp  of  globular  Jtbrm,  though  some  derive  it  from 
J3ovM/9  will,  decree)  and  brie/*  (breve,  a  short,  concise  summary),  i.  e., 
the  official  letters  since  the  conclusion  of  the  canou  law.  They  are 
of  equal  authority,  but  the  bulls  differ  from  tho  briefs  by  their  more 
solemn  form.  The  bulls  are  written  on  parchment,  and  sualod  with 
a  seal  of  lead  or  gold,  which  ia  stamped  on  one  Hide  with  the  effigies 
of  Peter  and  Paul,  and  on  the  other  with  the  name  of  tho  roiguiug 
pope,  and  attached  to  the  instrument  by  a  string ;  while  tho  brief**  are 
written  on  paper,  sealed  with  red  wax,  and  impressed  with  tho  Heal 
of  the  fisherman  or  Peter  in  a  boat. 

(3)  For  tho  history  of  Christian  life:  tho  biographies  of  HamtH,  the 
disciplinary  canons  of  «ynods,  the  ascetic  literature. 

(4)  For  worship  and  ceremonies :  liturgies,  hymns,  homilies,  works  of 
architecture,  Hcuipture,  painting,  poetry,  music.    Tho  Gothic  cathe- 
drals are  as  striking  embodiments  of  medieval  Christianity  an  the 
Egyptian  pyramids  are  of  the  civilization  of  the  Pharaohs, 

(5)  For  theology  and  Christian  learning:  the  works  of  tho  later  fathers 
(beginning  with  Gregory  L),  schoolmen,  mystics,  ami  the  forerunners 
of  the  information. 

II.  DOCUMENTARY  COLLECTIONS.  WOEKB  ov  MEM./KVAL  WJUTOIIS. 

(1)  For  tho  Oriental  Church. 

Corpus  tfcriptorum  IfiAtoritz  Byzantinn,  opera  NiEBtrHRH,  BKKKBRI,  ct  aL 
Bonnse,  1828-78,  60  vols.  8vo.  Contains  a  complete  history  of  tho 
East-Roman  Empire  from  the  sixth  century  to  its  fall.  The  chief 
writers  are  ZONAKAS,  from  tho  Creation  to  A.  D.  1118 ;  NIOBTAB,  from 
1118  to  1206;  GIUSUORAB,  from  1204  to  1859;  JUoNioun,  from  1208 
to  1463;  DTJOAS,  from  1841  to  1462;  PHBANTZEH,  from  1401  to  1477. 

J.  A.  FABBIOITJS  (d.  1736) :  Biblwtheca,  Graoa  me  Notitia  Smptorum 
veferum  Cfraoorum,  4th  ed.,  by  ft  Chr.  ITarlm,  with  additions. 
Hamburg,  1790-1811,  12  vols.  A  supplement  by  S.  F.  W,  HOOT* 
HANK:  Hibliographwches  Lexicon  der  gesammten  Literatur  der 
Griechen.  Leipzig,  1838-'45,  8  vols. 

(2)  For  the  Western  Church, 

Bibtiotheca  Maxima  fatrwto.    Lugduni,  1677,  27  vols,  foL 
MABTENE  (d.  1789)  and  DUEAND  (d.  1773) :   Thttaurus  Anccdotorum 
Nww,  seu  Cbttectio  Mmumentorwn,  etc.    Paris,  1717,  5  vote*  foi 
By  the  same :  Vettrum  Swiptorum  et  Mwtmenforim  Cbtibotfo 
Paris,  1724-'83,  9  vols.  fol. 


§  1.  SOURCES  AND  LITERATURE.  3 

J.  A.  FABRICITJS:  Bibliotheca  Latina  Media  et  Infimce  jSStatis.  Hamb. 
1734,  and  with  supplem.  1754,  6  vols.  4to. 

Abbe  MIGHSTE  :  Patralogice  Oursus  Completes,  sive  Bibliotheca  Unwersalis  . . . 
Patrum,  etc.  Paris,  1844-'66.  The  Latin  series  (1844-'55)  has  221 
vols.  (4  vols.  indices) ;  the  Greek  series  (1857-'66)  has  166  vols.  The 
Latin  series,  from  torn.  80-217,  contains  the  writers  from  Gregory 
the  Great  to  Innocent  III.  Eeprints  of  older  editions,  and  most 
valuable  for  completeness  and  convenience,  though  lacking  in 
critical  accuracy. 

Abbe  HORAY  :  Medii  JEvi  Bibliotheca  Patrlstica  ab  anno  MOCXVI  usque 
ad  Oondlii  Tridentini  Tempora.  Paris,  1879  sqq.  A  continuation  of 
Migne  in  the  same  style.  The  first  4  vols.  contain  the  Opera 
Honorii  III. 

JOAN.  DOMIN.  MAKSI  (archbishop  of  Lucca,  d.  1769) :  tiacrorum  Con- 
ciliorum  nova  et  amplissima  ColletMo.  Florence  and  Venice  175$- 
1798,  31  vols.  fol.  The  best  collection  down  to  1509.  A  new  ed. 
(fac-simile)  publ.  by  Victor  Palm£,  Paris  and  Berlin  1884  sqq. 
Earlier  collections  of  Councils  by  LABB£  and  OOSSABT  (1671-72, 
18  vols),  COLET  (with  the  supplements  of  Mansi,  1728-52,  29  vols. 
fol.),  and  HABDOXTIN  (1715, 12  vols.  fol.). 

0.  COCQUELIHES :  Magnum  Bullarmm  Eomanum.    Bullarum,  Privilegw- 

rum  ac  Xtiptomatum  JKomanorum  Pontificum  usque  ad  Clementem  Xn. 

amplissima  Oolkctio.    Eom.  1738-58.    14  Tom.  fol.  in  28  Partes; 

new  ed.  1847-72,  in  24  vols. 
A.  A*  BABBEBI  :   Magni  BuUarii  Bom.  Continuatio  a  Clemente  XH£.  ad 

Hum  FIJI.  (1758-1830).    Eom.  1835-'57,  18  vols.  foL    The  bulls 

of  Gregory  XVI.  appeared  1857  in  1  vol. 
G.  H.  PBBTZ  (d.  1876) :  Mbnumenta  Germanic  Historica.  Hannov.  1826- 

1879.    24  vols.  fol.    Continued  by  G.  WAITS. 

III.  DOCUMEOTAKY  HISTORIES. 

Jicta  Sanctorum  BOLLAKDISTARTTM.  Antw.  Bnixellis  et  Tongerloae,  1643- 
1794 ;  Brux.  1845  sqq.,  new  ed.  Paris,  1868-'75,  in  61  vols.  fol.  (with 
supplement).  Boo  a  list  of  contents  in  the  seventh  volume  for  June 
or  the  first  volume  for  October ;  also  in  the  second  part  of  Potfchast, 
sub  "Vita,"  pp.  575  sqq. 

This  monumental  work  of  John  Bolland  (a  learned  Jesuit,  1596- 
1665),  Oodefr.  ffewchen  (fl681),  Dan.  Papebroch  (f!714),  and  their  as- 
sociates and  followers,  called  Bollandiats,  contains  biographies  of  all 
the  saints  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  order  of  the  calendar,  and 
divided  into  months.  They  are  not  critical  histories,  but  compila- 
tions of  an  immense  material  of  facts  and  fiction,  which  Ulustrate 
the  life  and  manners  of  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  church.  Potthast 
justly  calls  it  a  "  nesenhaftes  DenJmal  wwenschaftMchen  Strebens."  It 
was  carried  on  with  the  fcid  of  the  Belgic  government,  which  con- 
tributed (since  1837)  6,000  francs  annually. 


4  MEDLffiVAL  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

dm.  BARONOTS  (d.  1607) :  Annales  eccZeaiastid  a  Ohruto  nato  ad  annum 
1198.  Rom.  1588-1593,  12  vols.  Continued  by  IUYNALDT  (from 
1198  to  1505),  LADERCIII  (from  1566-1571),  and  A.  THKINKR  (1572- 
1584).  Beat  ed.  by  Maim9  with  the  continuations*  of  Raynaldi, 
and  the  Oritica  of  Pagi,  Lucca,  1738-'59,  35  voK  fol  text,  and  3  vols, 
of  index  univcrsalis.  A  new  ed.  by  A.  T/ieiwr  (d.  1874),  Bar-le-Duc, 
1864  sqq.  Likewise  a  work  of  herculean  industry,  but  to  bo  used 
with  critical  caution,  as  it  contains  many  spurioua  doctunoniw,  legends 
and  fictions,  and  is  written  in  the  interest  and  defence  of  the  papacy. 

IV.  MODEBN  HlSTOEIES  OJP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

J.  M.  F.  F&AHTIN:  Annaks  du  moyen  age.    Dijon,  1825,  8  voK  8vo. 

F.  HEHM  :  Ocschichte  des  Mlttetalters.    Marbg,  1821-938,  4  VO!H.  8vo. 

HBINEICH  LEO:  Qeschichte  des  Mittclalters.    Halle,  1830,  2  vol«. 

CHARPEOTIEB :  Jfflstoire  literaire  du  moyen  age.    Par.  1833. 

R.  HAMPSON:  MediiJSoi  Calendarium,  or  X>at&*,  Charter*,  and  (Jwtom 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  K<den^*Jr<m  the  J£t,h  to  the  XVth  century. 
London,  1841, 2  v6ls,  8vo. 

HEISTBY  HALLAM  (d.  1859) :  View  of  the  Stats,  of  Europe  during  the  ARddle 
Ages.  London,  1818, 3d  ed.  184B,  Boston  ed.  18G4  in  8  vok  By  tlio 
same:  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  Europe  in  the  15M,  16^/A,  and 
17th  centuries.  Several  ed.,  Engl.  and  Am.  Boston  ed.  1864  in  4 
vok.;  N.  York,  1880,  in  4  volfl. 

OHABLES  HARDWICK  (f!859) :  A  History  of  tlie  Christian,  Church.  Middfo 
Age.  3d  ed.  by  Stubbs,  London,  1872. 

HENEY  HAET  MILMAK  (f!868) :  JBRstory  of  Latin  Christianity;  includ- 
ing tlwt  of  the  Popes  to  the  Pontificate  of  Nicholas  V.  London  and  N, 
York,  1854>  8  vols.,  new  ed.,  N.  York  (A.  0.  AnnKtrong  &  Bon),  1880. 

RTOHAK.D  CHEKEVIX  TEENOH  (Archbishop  of  Dublin) :  fartum  on 
McdicwaZ  Church  History.  London,  1877,  republ  N.  York,  1878. 

V.  THE  MEDIEVAL  SECTIONS  OP  THE  GENEKAL  OUURCII  UIHTORIIGR. 

(a)  Roman  Catholic:  BABONTUS  (see above),  FLETJEY,  MO'IIWOR,  Ai^oo, 

DOLLWGEB  (before  1870),  HEBGENBOTHEB. 

(b)  Protestant:  MOSHEIM,  SOHBOOKH,  QIESELEB,  NBANDKB*  BATJB, 
HAGENBAOH,  ROBEBTSOK    Also  GIBBON'S  Dentine  and  Fdl  of  the 
Bom.  Empire  (Win,  Smith's  ed,),  from  ch.  45  to  the  cloHo, 

VI.  AtTXILIABY. 

DOMIN,  DXJ  OANGE  (Charles  du  Fresne,  d.  1688) :  Glos&arium  ad  Scriptore* 
medics  et  infivwe  Latinitatis,  Paris,  1678;  new  ed.  by  Htwchtl,  Par. 
1840-'50,  in  7  vols.  4to;  and  again  by  JFavre,  1883  Bqq.— By  the 
eame:  Olossarium  ad  Scriptorcs  media*  et  infimte  GrascitcUis^  Par* 
1682,  and  Lugd.  Batav.  1688, 2  vols.  fol.  These  two  works  are  the 
philological  keys  to  the  knowledge  of  medieval  church  history. 

An  English  ed.  of  the  Latin  glossary  has  been  announced  by  John 
Murray,  of  London:  Mcdiceval  Latin-English  Dictionary,  based  upon 
the  great  wort  of  Du  Gange.  With  additions  and  correction  by  E,  A* 
DAYMAN. 


§  2.   THE  MIDDLE  AGE.   LIMITS  AND  GENERAL  CHARACTER,  5 

§  2.  The  MMdle  Age.    Limits  and  General  Character. 

The  MIDDLE  Age,  as  the  term  implies,  is  the  period  which 
intervenes  between  ancient  and  modern  times,  and  connects  them, 
by  continuing  the  one,  and  preparing  for  the  other.  It  forms 
the  transition  from  the  Graeco-Roman  civilization  to  the  Romano- 
Germanic  civilization,  which  gradually  arose  out  of  the  inter- 
vening chaos  of  barbarism.  The  connecting  link  is  Christianity^ 
which  saved  the  best  elements  of  the  old,  and  directed  and 
moulded  the  new  order  of  things. 

Politically,  the  middle  age  dates  from  the  great  migration  of 
nations  and  the  downfall  of  the  western  Roman  Empire  in  the 
fifth  century;  but  for  ecclesiastical  history  it  begins  with  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  the  last  of  the  fathers  and  the  first  of  the  popes, 
at  the  close  of  the  sixth  century.  Its  termination,  both  for  secu- 
lar and  ecclesiastical  history,  is  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century  (1517),  which  introduces  the  modern  age  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  Some  date  modern  history  from  the  invention  of  the 
art  of  printing,  or  from  the  discovery  of  America,  which  pre- 
ceded the  Reformation ;  but  these  events  were  only  preparatory 
to  a  great  reform  movement  and  extension  of  the  Christian 
trorid. 

The  theatre  of  mediaeval  Christianity  is  mainly  Europe.  In 
"Western  Asia  and  North  Africa,  the  Cross  was  supplanted 
by  the  Crescent ;  and  America,  which  opened  a  new  field  for 
the  ever-expanding  energies  of  history,  was  not  discovered 
until  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 

Europe  was  peopled  by  a  warlike  emigration  of  heathen  bar- 
barians from  Asia,  as  America  is  peopled  by  a  peaceful  emigra- 
tion from  civilized  and  Christian  Europe. 

The  great  migration  of  nations  marks  a  turning  point  in  the 
history  of  religion  and  civilization.  It  was  destructive  in  its 
first  effects,  and  appeared  like  the  doom  of  the  judgment-day; 
but  it  proved  the  harbinger  of  a  new  creation,  the  chaos  pre- 
ceding the  cosmos.  The  change  was  brought  about  gradually. 
The  forces  of  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  world  continued  to 


6  MEDIAEVAL  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

work  for  centuries  alongside  of  the  new  elements.  The  barbarian 
irruption  came  not  like  a  single  torrent  which  passes  by,  but  as 
the  tide  which  advances  and  retires,  returns  and  at  last  becomes 
master  of  the  flooded  soil.  The  savages  of  the  north  swept 
down  the  valley  of  the  Danube  to  the  borders  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  and  southward  over  the  Rhine  and  the  Vosges  into 
Gaul,  across  the  Alps  into  Italy,  and  across  the  Pyrenees  into 
Spain.  They  were  not  a  single  people,  but  many  independent 
tribes;  not  an  organized  army  of  a  conqueror,  but  irregular 
hordes  of  wild  warriors  ruled  by  intrepid  kings ;  not  directed 
by  the  ambition  of  one  controlling  genius,  like  Alexander  or 
Csesar,  but  prompted  by  the  irresistible  impulse  'of  an  historical 
instinct,  and  unconsciously  bearing  in  their  rear  the  future  des- 
tinies of  Europe  and  America.  They  brought  with  them  fire 
and  sword,  destruction  and  desolation,  but  also  life  and  vigor, 
respect  for  woman,  sense  of  honor,  love  of  liberty — noble  in- 
stincts, which,  being  purified  and  developed  by  Christianity, 
became  the  governing  principles  of  a  higher  civilization  than 
that  of  Greece  and  Borne.  The  Christian  monk  Salvian,  who 
lived  in  the  midst  of  the  barbarian  flood,  in  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century,  draws  a  most  gloomy  and  appalling  picture  of  the 
vices  of  the  orthodox  Romans  of  his  time,  and  docs  not  hesitate 
to  give  preference  to  the  heretical  (Arian)  and  heathen  barba- 
rians, "  whose  chastity  purifies  the  earth,  deep  stained  with  the 
Eoman  debauches/'  St.  Augustin  (d.  430),  who  took  a  more 
sober  and  comprehensive  view,  intimates,  in  his  great  work  on 
the  City  of  God,  the  possibility  of  the  rise  of  a  new  and  bettor 
civilization  from  the  ruins  of  the  old  [Roman  empire;  and  his 
pupil,  Orosius,  clearly  expresses  this  hopeful  view.  "Men 
assert/'  he  says,  "  that  the  barbarians  are  enemies  of  the  State. 
I  reply  that  all  the  East  thought  tike  same  of  tho  great  Alexan- 
der ;  the  Eomans  also  seemed  no  better  than  tho  enemies  of  all 
society  to  the  nations  afar  off,  whose  repose  they  troubled.  But 
the  Greeks,  you  say,  established  empires;  the  Germans  overthrow 
them.  Well,  the  Macedonians  began  by  subduing  the  nations 
which  afterwards  they  civilized.  The  Germans  are  now  upset- 


§3.   THE  NATIONS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CHRISTIANITY.  7 

ting  all  this  world ;  but  if,  which  Heaven  avert,  they  finish  by 
continuing  to  be  its  masters,  peradventure  some  day  posterity 
will  salute  with  the  title  of  great  princes  those  in  whom  we  at 
this  day  can  see  nothing  but  enemies." 

§  3.    The  Nations  of  Medieval  Christianity.     The  Kelt,  the 
Teuton,  and  the  Slav. 

The  new  national  forces  which  now  enter  upon  the  arena  of 
church-history  may  be  divided  into  four  groups : 

1.  The  EOMANIC  or  LATIN  nations  of  Southern  Europe,  in- 
cluding the  Italians,  Spaniards,  Portuguese  and  French.    They 
are  the  natural  descendants  and  heirs  of  the  old  Koman  nation- 
ality and  Latin  Christianity,  yet  mixed  with  the  new  Keltic 
and  Germanic  forces.    Their  languages  are  all  derived  from  the 
Latin ;  they  inherited  Eoman  laws  and  customs,  and  adhered  to 
the  Roman  See  as  the  centre  of  their  ecclesiastical  organization ; 
they  carried  Christianity  to  the  advancing  barbarians,  and  by 
their  superior  civilization  gave  laws  to  the  conquerors.    They 
still  adhere,  with  their  descendants  in  Central  and  South  Ame- 
rica, to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

2.  The  KELTIC  race,  embracing  the  Gauls,  old  Britons,  the 
Plots  and  Scots,  the  Welsh  and  Irish  with  their  numerous  emi- 
grants in  all  the  large  cities  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  appear  in  history  several  hundred  years  before  Christ,  as 
the  first  light  wave  of  the  vast  Aryan  migration  from  the  mys- 
terious bowels  of  Asia,  which  swept  to  the  borders  of  the  extreme 
West.1    The  Gauls  were  conquered  by  Caesar,  but  afterwards 

i  Kefoot  or  K.&TCU,  OWtee,  TaUrat,  GafaUe  or  Gdati>  Gatti,  Gad.  Some 
derive  it  from  celt,  a  cover,  shelter;  others  from  celu  (Lat.  cdo)  to  conceal.  Hero- 
dotus first  mentions  them,  as  dwelling  in  the  extreme  northwest  of  Europe.  On 
those  terms  see  Diefenbach,  CeUica,  Branded,  Kelten,  wnd  Germanen,  Thierry,  His- 
loire  des  Gaufois,  the  art.  GaM  in  Paul/s  Eealencyclopddie^  and  the  introductions 
to  the  critical  Commentaries  on  the  Galatians  by  Wieseler  and  Lightfoot  (and 
Lightfootf  s  Excursus  L).  The  Galatians  in  Asia  Minor,  to  whom  Paul  addressed 
his  epistle,  were  a  branch  of  the  Keltic  race,  which  either  separated  from  the 
main  current  of  the  westward  migration,  or,  being  obstructed  by  the  ocean, 
retraced  their  steps,  and  turned  eastward.  Wieseler  (in  his  Com,  and  in  several 
articles  in  the  "Studien  und  Kritiken,"  and  in  the  "Zeitschrift  fur  Kirchen- 
geschichte,"  1877  No.  1)  tries  to  make  them  Germans,  a  view  first  hinted  at 


8  MEDIAEVAL  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

commingled  with  the  Teutonic  Francs,  who  founded  the  French 
monarchy.  The  Britons  were  likewise  subdued  by  the  liomans, 
and  afterwards  driven  to  Wales  and  Cornwall  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxons.  The  Scotch  in  the  highlands  (Gaels)  remained  Keltic, 
while  in  the  lowlands  they  mixed  with  Saxons  and  Normans. 

The  mental  characteristics  of  the  Kelts  remain  unchanged  for 
two  thousand  years:  quick  wit,  fluent  speech,  vivacity,  spright- 
liness,  impressibility,  personal  bravery  and  daring,  loyalty  to  the 
chief  or  the  clan,  but  also  levity,  fickleness,  quarrelsomeness  and 
incapacity  for  self-government.  "They  shook  all  empires,  but 
founded  none/'  The  elder  Cato  says  of  them :  "  To  two  things 
are  the  Kelts  most  attent:  to  fighting  (ar$  militariti),  ami  to 
adroitness  of  speech  (argute  loqufy"  Csesar  censures  their  love 
of  levity  and  change.  The  apostle  Paul  complains  of  the 
same  weakness.  Thierry,  their  historian,  well  describes  them 
thus:  "Their  prominent  attributes  are  personal  valor,  in  which 
they  excel  all  nations;  a  frank,  impetuous  spirit  open  to  every 
impression ;  great  intelligence,  but  joined  with  extreme  mobility, 
deficient  perseverance,  restlessness  under  discipline  and  order, 
boastfulness  and  eternal  discord,  resulting  from  boundless  vanity." 
Mommsen  quotes  this  passage,  and  adds  that  the  Kelts  make 
good  soldiers,  but  bad  citizens;  that  the  only  order  to  which 
Ihey  submit  is  the  military,  because  the  severe  general  discipline 
relieves  them  of  the  heavy  burden  of  individual  self-control.1 

Keltic  Christianity  was  at  first  independent  of  Borne,  and 
even  antagonistic  to  it  in  certain  subordinate  rites ;  but  after  the 
Saxon  and  Norman  conquests,  it  was  brought  into  conformity, 
and  since  the  Reformation,  the  Irish  have  been  more  attached  to 
tihe  Roman  Church  iihan  even  the  Latin  races.  The  French  for- 
merly inclined  likewise  to  a  liberal  Catholicism  (called  Galilean- 
ism) ;  but  they  sacrificed  the  Galilean  liberties  to  the  Ultramontan- 
ism  of  the  Vatican  Council.  The  Welsh  and  Scotch,  on  the  con- 
trary, with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of  the  Highlanders  in  the 

by  Luther.    Bat  foe  fickleness  of  the  Gaktian  Christians  is  characteristic  of 
the  ancient  Gauls  and  modern  French, 
i  ffimische  GeuslMte,  Vol.  I,  p.  329,  5th  ed.;  Berlin,  1868. 


§3.   THE  NATIONS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CHRISTIANITY.  9 

North  of  Scotland,  embraced  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  its 
Calvinistic  rigor,  and  are  among  its  sternest  and  most  vigorous 
advocates.  The  course  of  the  Keltic  nations  had  been  anticipated 
by  the  Galatians,  who  first  embraced  with  great  readiness  and 
heartiness  the  independent  gospel  of  St.  Paul,  but  were  soon 
turned  away  to  a  Judaizing  legalism  by  false  teachers,  and  then 
brought  back  again  by  Paul  to  the  right  path. 

3.  The  GEBMANICI  or  TEUTONIC2  nations  followed  the  Keltic 
migration  in  successive  westward  and  southward  waves,  before 
and  after  Christ,  and  spread  over  Germany,  Switzerland,  Hol- 
land, Scandinavia,  the  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia,  and,  since  the 
Anglo-Saxon  invasion,  also  over  England  and  Scotland  and  the 
northern  (non-Keltic)  part  of  Ireland.  In  modern  times  their 
descendants  peacefully  settled  the  British  Provinces  and  the 
greater  part  of  North  America.  The  Germanic  nations  are  the 
fresh,  vigorous,  promising  and  advancing  races  of  the  middle 
age  and  modern  times.  Their  Christianization  began  in  the 
fourth  century,  and  went  on  in  wholesale  style  till  it  was  com- 
pleted in  the  tenth.  The  Germans,  under  their  leader  Odoacer 
in  476,  deposed  Romulus  Augustulus — the  shadow  of  old  Romu- 
lus and  Augustus — and  overthrew  the  West  Roman  Empire, 
thus  fulfilling  the  old  augury  of  the  twelve  birds  of  fate,  that 
Rome  was  to  grow  six  centuries  and  to  decline  six  centuries. 
Wherever  they  went,  they  brought  destruction  to  decaying  insti- 
tutions. But  with  few  exceptions,  they  readily  embraced  the 
religion  of  the  conquered  Latin  provinces,  and  with  childlike 
docility  submitted  to  its  educational  power.  They  were  predes- 
tinated for  Christianity,  and  Christianity  for  them.  It  curbed 
their  warlike  passions,  regulated  their  wild  force,  and  developed 

1  The  word  is  of  uncertain  origin.  Some  derive  it  from  a  Keltic  root,  garm  or 
gairm,  i*  e.  noise;  some  from  the  old  German  gere  (guerre),  a  pointed  weapon, 
spear  or  javelin  (so  that  German  would  mean  an  armed  man,  or  war-man,  Wehr- 
TOCWM);  others,  from  the  Persian  irman,  erman,  i.  e.  guest. 

1  From  the  Gothic  Mudisco,  g&ntilis,  popularis;  hence  the  Latin  teutonic™, 
and  the  German  deutech  or  teutsch  (which  may  also  he  connected  with  diutan, 
deuten,  d&iMeh).  In  the  English  usage,  the  term  Oermm  is  confined  to  the 
Germans  proper,  and  Dutch  to  the  Hollanders;  but  Germanic  and  Teutonic 
apply  to  all  cognate  races. 


JLU  MEDIAEVAL  OHTTBCH  HISTOKY. 

their  nobler  instincts,  their  devotion  and  fidelity,  their  respect 
for  woman,  their  reverence  for  all  family-relations,  their  love  of 
personal  liberty  and  independence.  The  Latin  church  wa#  to 
them  only  a  school  of  discipline  to  prepare  them  for  an  age  of 
Christian  manhood  and  independence,  which  dawned  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  Protestant  Keformation  was  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  Germanic  races  from  the  pupilage  of  mediaeval  and 
legalistic  Catholicism. 

Tacitus,  the  great  heathen  historian,  no  doubt  idealized  the 
barbarous  Germans  in  contrast  with  the  degenerate  Romans  of 
his  day  (as  Montaigne  and  Rousseau  painted  the  savages  "  in  a 
fit  of  ill  humor  against  their  country") ;  but  he  unconsciously 
prophesied  their  future  greatness,  and  his  prophecy  has  been 
more  than  fulfilled. 

4.  The  SLAVONIC  or  SLAVIC  races,  or  Slavs1  in  the  East  and 
Norfh  of  Europe,  including  the  Bulgarians,  Bohemians  (Cxcclis), 
Moravians,  Slovaks,  Servians,  Croatians,  Wends,  Poles,  and 
Russians,  were  mainly  converted  through  Eastern  missionaries 
since  the  ninth  and  tenth  century.  The  Eastern  Slavs,  who  are 
the  vast  majority,  were  incorporated  with  the  Greek  Church, 
which  became  the  national  religion  of  Russia,  and  through  this 
empire  acquired  a  territory  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Roman 
Church.  The  western  Slavs,  the  Bohemians  and  Poles,  became 
subject  to  the  Papacy. 

The  Slavs,  who  number  in  all  nearly  80,000,000,  occupy  a 
very  subordinate  position  in  the  history  of  the  middle  ages,  and 

1  Tho  term  Slav  or  Slavonian  is  derived  by  some  from  slovo,  word;  by  others, 
from  dawt  glory.  From  it  are  derived  the  words  slave  and  slavery  (Sdave, 
esctave],  because  many  Slavs  were  reduced  to  a  state  of  slavery  or  Horfdozn  by 
their  German  masters.  Webster  spells  slave  instead  of  slav,  and  Edward  A. 
Freeman,  in  his  Historical  Essays  (third  series,  1879),  defends  thfo  spelling  on 
three  grounds :  1)  No  English  word  ends  in  v.  But  many  Russian  worcta  do,  as 
Kiev,  Yaroslav,  and  some  Hebrew  grammars  use  Tax  and  Vav  for  Tau  and  Vau. 
2)  Analogy*  We  write  Dane,  Swede,  Pole,  not  Dan,  etc*  But  the  a  in  Slav  has 
the  continental  sound,  and  the  tendency  is  to  get  rid  of  mute  vowek  3)  The 
form  Slave  perpetuates  the  etymology.  But  the  etymology  (Hlavo=w^ov/ioc)  is 
uncertain,  and  it  is  well  to  distinguish  the  national  name  from  the  ordinary 
slaves,  and  thus  avoid  offence.  The  Germans  also  distinguish  between  Slawn, 
Sdaven. 


§4.  GENIUS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CHBIBTIAlSriTy.  11 

are  isolated  from  the  main  current;  but  recently  they  have  begun 
to  develop  their  resources,  and  seem  to  have  a  great  future  before 
them  through  the  commanding  political  power  of  Russia  in 
Europe  and  in  Asia.  Russia  is  the  bearer  of  the  destinies  of 
Panslavism  and  of  the  Eastern  Church. 

5.  The  GREEK  nationality,  which  figured  so  conspicuously  in 
ancient  Christianity,  maintained  its  independence  down  to  the 
fall  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  in  1453 ;  but  it  was  mixed  with 
Slavonic  elements.  The  Greek  Church  was  much  weakened  by 
the  inroads  of  Mohammedanism,  and  lost  the  possession  of  the 
territories  of  primitive  Christianity,  but  secured  a  new  and  vast 
missionary  field  in  Russia. 

§  4.  Cr&mus  of  Medicevdl  Christianity. 

Mediaeval  Christianity  is,  on  the  one  hand,  a  legitimate  con- 
tinuation and  further  development  of  ancient  Catholicism ;  on 
the  other  hand,  a  preparation  for  Protestantism. 

Its  leading  forces  are  the  papacy,  monasticism,  and  scholasti- 
cism, which  were  developed  to  their  height,  and  then  assailed  by 
growing  opposition  from  within. 

Christianity,  at  its  first  introduction,  had  to  do  with  highly 
civilized  nations ;  but  now  it  had  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new 
civilisation  among  barbarians.  The  apostles  planted  churches 
in  tihe  cities  of  the  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Romans,  and  the  word 
"pagan,"  i.  e.  villager,  backwoodsman,  gradually  came  to  de- 
note an  idolater.  They  spoke  and  wrote  in  a  language  which 
had  already  a  large  and  immortal  literature ;  their  progress  was 
paved  by  the  high  roads  of  the  Roman  legions;  they  found 
everywhere  an  established  order  of  society  and  government;  and 
their  mission  was  to  infuse  into  the  ancient  civilization  a  new 
spiritual  life  and  to  make  it  subservient  to  higher  moral  ends. 
But  the  missionaries  of  the  dark  ages  had  to  visit  wild  woods  and 
untilled  fields,  to  teach  rude  nations  the  alphabet,  and  to  lay  the 
foundation  for  society,  literature  and  art. 

Hence  Christianity  assumed  the  character  of  a  strong  discipli- 
nary institution,  a  training  school  for  nations  in  their  infancy, 


12  MEDIAEVAL  OHTJKCII  JITHTOKY. 

which  had  to  bo  treated  as  children.  Hence  the  legalistic,  hier- 
archical, ritualistic  and  romantic  character  of  medieval  Catholi- 
cism. Yet  in  proportion  as  the  nations  were  trained  in  the 
school  of  the  church,  they  began  to  assert  their  independence  of 
the  hierarchy  and  to  develop  a  national  literature  in  their  own 
language.  Compared  with  our  times,  in  which  thought  and 
reflection  have  become  the  highest  arbiter  of  human  life,  the 
middle  age  was  an  age  of  passion.  The  written  law,  such  as  it 
was  developed  in  Roman  society,  the  barbarian  could  not  tinder- 
stand  and  would  not  obey.  But  he  wits  easily  impressed  by  the 
spoken  law,  the  living  word,  and  found  a  kind  of  charm  in 
bending  his  will  absolutely  before  another  will.  Tims  the  teach- 
ing church  became  the  law  in  the  land,  and  formed  the  veiy 
foundation  of  all  social  and  political  organisation. 

The  middle  ages  are  often  called  "the  dark  ages:"  truly,  if 
we  compare  them  with  ancient  Christianity,  which  preceded, 
and  with  modern  Christianity,  which  followed ;  falsely  and  un- 
justly, if  the  church  is  made  responnible  for  the  darkness. 
Christianity  was  tihe  light  that  shone  in  the  darkness  of  sur- 
rounding barbarism  and  heathenism,  and  gradxially  dispelled  it* 
Industrious  priests  and  monks  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the 
Bomau  Empire  the  treasures  of  classical  literature,  together  with 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  patristic  writings,  and  transmitted  them 
to  better  times.  The  mediaeval  light  was  indeed  the  borrowed 
star  and  moon-light  of  ecclesiastical  tradition,  rather  than  the 
clear  sun-light  from  the  inspired  pages  of  the  New  Testament ; 
but  it  was  such  light  as  the  eyes  of  nations  in  their  ignorance 
could  bear,  and  it  never  ceased  to  shine  till  it  disappeared  in 
the  day-light  of  the  great  Reformation.  Christ  had  his  witnesses 
in  all  ages  and  countries,  and  those  shine  all  the  brighter  who 
were  surrounded  by  midnight  darkness. 

"Pause  where  we  may  upon  the  desert-road, 
Some  shelter  is  in  sight,  some  sacred  safe  abode." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  middle  ages  are  often  called,  especially 
by  Roman  Catholic  writers,  "the  ages  of  faith."  They  abound 


§4.  GENIUS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CHRISTIANITY.  13 

In  legends  of  saints,  which  had  the  charm  of  religious  novels. 
All  men  believed  in  the  supernatural  and  miraculous  as  readily 
as  children  do  now.  Heaven  and  hell  were  as  real  to  the  mind 
as  the  kingdom  of  France  and  the  republic  of  Venice.  Skep- 
ticism and  infidelity  were  almost  unknown,  or  at  least  suppressed 
and  concealed.  But  with  faith  was  connected  a  vast  deal  of  super- 
stition and  an  entire  absence  of  critical  investigation  and  judg- 
ment. Faith  was  blind  and  unreasoning,  like  the  faith  of  children. 
The  most  incredible  and  absurd  legends  were  accepted  without  a 
question.  And  yet  the  morality  was  not  a  whit  better,  but  in  many 
respects  ruder,  coarser  and  more  passionate,  than  in  modern  times. 

The  church  as  a  visible  organization  never  had  greater  power 
over  the  minds  of  men.  She  controlled  all  departments  of  life 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  She  monopolized  all  the  learning 
and  made  sciences  and  arts  tributary  to  her.  She  took  the  lead 
in  every  progressive  movement.  She  founded  universities,  built 
lofty  cathedrals,  stirred  up  the  crusades,  made  and  unmade  kings, 
dispensed  blessings  and  curses  to  whole  nations.  The  mediaeval 
hierarchy  centering  in  Rome  re-enacted  the  Jewish  theocracy  on 
a  more  comprehensive  scale.  It  was  a  carnal  anticipation  of  the 
millennial  reign  of  Christ.  It  took  centuries  to  rear  up  this 
imposing  structure,  and  centuries  to  take  it  down  again. 

The  opposition  came  partly  from  the  anti-Catholic  sects,  which, 
in  spite  of  cruel  persecution,  never  ceased  to  protest  against  the 
corruptions  and  tyranny  of  the  papacy;  partly  from  the  spirit 
of  nationality  which  arose  in  opposition  to  an  all-absorbing  hie- 
rarchical centralization;  partly  from  tihe  revival  of  classical  and 
biblical  learning,  which  undermined  the  reign  of  superstition 
and  tradition;  and  partly  from  the  inner  and  deeper  life  of  the 
Catholic  Church  itself,  which  loudly  called  for  a  reformation, 
and  struggled  through  the  severe  discipline  of  the  law  to  the 
light  and  freedom  of  the  gospel.  The  mediaeval  Church  was  a 
schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to  Christ.  The  Reformation  was  an 
emancipation  of  Western  Christendom  from  the  bondage  of  the 
law,  and  a  re-conquest  of  that  liberty  "wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  us  free"  (Gal.  v.  1). 


14  MEDIEVAL  CHTJKCH 


§  5.  Periods  of  the  Middle  Age. 
The  Middle  Age  may  be  divided  into  three  periods  : 

1.  The  missionary  period  from  Gregory  I.  to  Hildebrand  or 
Gregory  VII.,  A.  D.  590-1073.    The  conversion  of  the  northern 
barbarians.    The  dawn  of  a  new  civilisation.    The  origin  ami 
progress  of  Islam.    The  separation  of  the  West  from  the  Kant. 
Some  subdivide  this  period  by  Charlemagne  (800),  the  founder 
of  the  German-Roman  Empire, 

2.  The  palmy  period  of  the  papal  theocracy  from  Gregory 
VIL  to  Boniface  VIII.,  A.  D.  1073-12!)  k    The  height  of  the 
papacy,  monasticism  and  scholasticism.    The  Crusades.     The 
conflict  between  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor.    If  we  go  back  to 
the  rise  of  Hildebrand,  this  period  begins  in  1049. 

3.  The  decline  of  mediaeval  Catholicism  and  preparation  for 
modern  Christianity,  from  Boniface  VII  L  U>  the  Reformation, 
A.  D.  1294-1517.    The  papal  exile  and  Hchism;  the  reformatory 
councils;  the  decay  of  scholasticism;  the  growth  of  mysticism; 
the  revival  of  letters,  and  the  art  of  printing;  the  discovery 
of  America;  forerunners  of  Protestantism;  the  dawn  of  the 
Reformation. 

These  three  periods  are  related  to  each  other  as  the  wild  youth, 
the  ripe  manhood,  and  the  declining  old  age.  But  the  gradual 
dissolution  of  medievalism  was  only  the  preparation  for  a  new 
life,  a  destruction  looking  to  a  reconstruction. 

The  three  periods  may  bo  treated  separately,  or  as  a  continuous 
whole.  Both  methods  have  their  advantages:  the  first  for  a 
minute  study;  the  second  for  a  connected  survey  of  the  great 
movements. 

According  to  our  division  laid  down  in  the  introduction  to 
the  first  volume,  the  three  periods  of  the  middle  ages  are  the 
fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  periods  of  the  general  history  of  Chris- 
tianity* 


FOURTH  PERIOD. 
THE  CHURCH  AMONG  THE  BARBARIANS 

.    OB 

THE  MISSIONARY  PERIOD  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGE, 

FROM  GEEGOEY  I.  TO  GBEGOBT  VII. 

A.D.  5flOT01019(OBl07J), 


FOURTH  PERIOD 


THE  CHURCH  AMONG  THE  BARBARIANS 

FROM  GREGORY  I.  TO  GREGORY  VII. 
A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CONVERSION  OP  THE  NORTHERN  AND  WESTERN  BARBARIANS 
§  6.  Character  of  Mediaeval  Missions. 

THE  conversion  of  the  new  and  savage  races  which  enter  the 
theatre  of  history  at  the  threshold  of  the  middle  ages,  was  the 
great  work  of  the  Christian  church  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth 
century.  Already  in  the  second  or  third  century,  Christianiiy 
was  carried  to  the  Gauls,  the  Britons  and  the  Germans  on  the 
borders  of  the  Rhine.  But  these  were  sporadic  efforts  with  tran- 
sient results.  The  work  did  not  begin  in  earnest  till  the  sixth 
century,  and  then  it  went  vigorously  forward  to  the  tenth  and 
twelfth,  though  with  many  checks  and  temporary  relapses  caused 
by  civil  wars  and  foreign  invasions. 

The  Christianization  of  the  Kelts,  Teutons,  and  Slavonians  was 
at  the  same  time  a  process  of  civilization,  and  differed  in  this 
respect  entirely  from  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  Greeks,  and 
Romans  in  the  preceding  age.  Christian  missionaries  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  alphabet,  literature,  agriculture,  laws,  and  arts 
of  the  nations  of  Northern  and  Western  Europe,  as  they  now  do 

17 


18  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

among  the  heathen  nations  in  Asia  and  Africa.  "  Tlie  science 
of  language,"  says  a  competent  judge*/  "owes  more  than  its  first 
impulse  to  Christianity.  The  pioneers  of  our  science  were  those 
very  apostles  who  were  commanded  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature;  and  their  true  successors, 
the  missionaries  of  the  whole  Christian  church."  The  name  may 
be  said  of  every  branch  of  knowledge  and  art  of  peace.  The 
missionaries,  in  aiming  at  piety  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  inci- 
dentally promoted  mental  culture  and  temporal  prosperity.  The 
feeling  of  brotherhood  inspired  by  Christianity  broke  down  the 
partition  walls  between  race  and  race,  and  created  a  brotherhood 
of  nations. 

The  mediaeval  Christianization  was  a  wholesale  conversion,  or 
a  conversion  of  nations  under  the  command  of  their  leaders.  It, 
was  carried  on  not  only  by  missionaries  and  by  spiritual  means, 
but  also  by  political  influence,  alliances  of  heathen  princes  wilh 
Christian  wives,  and  in  some  cases  (as  the  baptism  of  the  Saxons 
under  Charlemagne)  by  military  force.  It  was  a  conversion  not  to 
the  primary  Christianity  of  inspired  apostles,  as  laid  down  in  the 
New  Testament,  but  to  the  secondary  Christianity  of  ecclesiastical 
tradition,  as  taught  by  the  fathers,  monks  and  popes.  It  was  a 
baptism  by  water,  rather  than  by  fire  aud  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
preceding  instruction  amounted  to  little  or  nothing;  even  the 
baptismal  formula,  mechanically  recited  in  Latin,  was  scarcely 
understood.  The  rude  barbarians,  owing  to  the  weakness  of 
their  heathen  religion,  readily  submitted  to  the  new  religion ;  but 
some  tribes  yielded  only  to  the  sword  of  the  conqueror. 

This  superficial,  wholesale  conversion  to  a  nominal  Christianity 
must  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  national  infant-baptism.  It 
furnished  the  basis  for  a  long  process  of  Christian  education. 
The  barbarians  were  children  in  knowledge,  and  had  to  be  treated 
like  children.  Christianity  assumed  the  form  of  a  new  law  lead** 
ing  them,  as  a  schoolmaster,  to  the  manhood  of  Christ. 

The  missionaries  of  the  middle  ages  were  nearly  all  monks* 

1  Max  MiiUer,  Science  of  Language,  L 121. 


1  7.  LITERATURE.  19 

They  were  generally  men  of  limited  education  and  narrow  views, 
but  devoted  zeal  and  heroic  self-denial.  Accustomed  to  primi- 
tive simplicity  of  life,  detached  from  all  earthly  ties,  trained  to 
all  sorts  of  privations,  ready  for  any  amount  of  labor,  and  com- 
manding attention  and  veneration  by  their  unusual  habits,  their 
celibacy,  fastings  and  constant  devotions,  they  were  upon  the 
whole  the  best  pioneers  of  Christianity  and  civilization  among 
the  savage  races  of  Northern  and  Western  Europe.  The  lives  of 
these  missionaries  are  surrounded  by  their  biographers  with  such 
a  halo  of  legends  and  miracles,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  sift 
fact  from  fiction.  Many  of  these  miracles  no  doubt  were  pro- 
ducts of  fancy  or  fraud ;  but  it  would  be  rash  to  deny  them  all. 
The  same  reason  which  made  miracles  necessary  in  the  first 
introduction  of  Christianity,  may  have  demanded  them  among 
barbarians  before  they  were  capable  of  appreciating  the  higher 
moral  evidences. 


L  THE  CONVERSION  OF  ENGLAND,  IRELAND,  AND  SCOTLAND. 

§  7.  Literature. 

I.  SOTTBCES. 

Gm>A8  (Abbot  of  Bangor  in  Wales,  the  oldest  British,  historian,  in  the 
sixth  cent.):  De  excidio  Britannia  conquestus,  etc.  A  picture  of 
the  evils  of  Britain  at  the  time.  Best  ed.  by  Joseph  Stevenson,  Lond., 
1838.  (English  Historical  Society's  publications.} 


(Abbot  of  Bangor  about  620)  :  JMogium  Britannia,  sive  Histo- 

ria  Britonum.    Ed.  Stevenson,  1838. 
The  Works  of  Gildas  and  Nennius  transl.  from  the  Latin  by  «7.  A. 

Giles,  London,  1841. 
*BEDA  Venerabilis    (d.  734)  :  JERstoria  Ecclesiastica  gentis  Anglorum;  in 

the  sixth  vol.  of  Migne's  ed.  of  Bedae  Opera  Omnia,  also  often  sepa- 

rately published  and  translated  into  English.    Best  ed.  by  Stevenson, 

Lond.,  1838;  and  by  Giles,  Lond.,  1849.    It  is  the  only  reliable 

church-history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period. 
The  AffaLO-SAXOBT  CHBONICLE,  from  the  time  of  Caesar  to  1164.   A  work 

of  several  successive  hands,  ed.  by  Gibson  with  an  EngL  translation, 

1823,  and  by  Giles,  1849  (in  one  vol.  with  Bede's  JSccles  History). 
See  the  Six  Old  English  Chronicles,  in  Bonn's  Antiquarian  Library 

(1848);  and  Church  Historians  of  England  trans,  by  Jos.  j 

Lond.  1852-'56,  6  vols. 


20  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1049. 

SIB  HENRY  SPELMAN  (cL  1641):  Concilia,,  decreta,  leges,  constitutions  in 
re  ecclesiarum  orbis  JBritannwi,  etc.  Lond.,  1639-'64,  2  vols.  fol. 
(Vol.  L  reaches  to  the  Norman  conquest;  vol.  ii.  to  Henry  VIII ). 

BAVUD  WILKIISTS  (d.  1745) :  Concilia  Magim  Britannia  et  lEbernwz  (from 
446  to  1717),  Lond.,  1737,  4  vols.  foL  (Vol.  I.  from  446  to  1265). 

*ARTHUR  WEST  HADDAJST  and  WILLIAM  STTTBBS:  Councils  and  Jfadeti- 
asticaX  Documents  relating  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland:  edited  after 
JSpelman  and  Wilkins.  Oxford  (Clarendon  Press),  1869  to  78.  So 
far  3  vols.  To  be  continued  down  to  the  Reformation. 

The  Penitentiala  of  the  Irish  and  Anglo-Saxon  Churches  arc  col- 
lected and  edited  by  F.  KTOSTMANB*  (Die  Lot.  Pfaitentialbiicher  der 
Angehachsen,  1844);  WASSBRSCHLBBBlsr  (Die  JSussordnungen  der 
abendland.  JSSrche,  1851);  ScilMlTZ  (Die  Bussbucher  u.  d.  JBussdis- 
ciplin  d.  Kirche,  1883). 

IL  Historical  Works, 
(a)  The  Christianization  of  England. 
*J.  USSHER  (d.  1655) :  Eritannicarum  JEccles.  Antiquitates.   Dublin,  1639; 

London,  1687;  TTor^s  ed.  by  Elrington,  1847,  Vols.  V.  and  VI. 
E.  STILLTNG-FLEBT  (d.  1699) :  Origenes  Britanniea;  or,  the  Antigu.  of  the 

British  Churches.  London,  1710;  Oxford,  1842;  2  vols. 
J.  LrETGARD  (B.  C.,  d.  1851) :  The  SMory  and  Antiquities  of  the  Anglo- 

Saxon  Church.    London,  1806,  new  ed.,  1845. 
KABL  SCHRODL  (li.  C.) :  Das  erste  Jahrhundert  der  englisohen  Kirehe. 

Passau  &  Wicn,  1840. 
EDWARD  CHTTRTOST  (Bector  of  Crayko,  Durham):  The  Early  Ifaglish 

Church,    London,  1841  (new  ed.  unchanged,  1878). 
JAMBS  YEOWBLL:  Chronicles  of  the  Ancient  JBritiah  Church  anterior  to  the 

Saxon  era.    London,  1846. 
FRANCIS  THACKERAY  (Episcop.) :  Researches  into  the  Eccks.  and  Political 

State  of  Ancient  Britain  under  the  JKoman  Emperor*.    London,  1848, 

2  yols. 
*COTOT  DE  M03STTALEMBBUT  (B.  C.,  d.  1870):  The  Monks  of  tlte  West. 

Edinburgh  and  London,  1861-79,  7  vols.    (Authorized  taransl,  from 

the  French  )    The  third  vol.  treats  of  the  British  Isles. 
BEHSTHOLD  PAXTLI:  J&ilder  aw  Afo-Efaglwd*    Gotha,  1860. 
W  F.  HOOK:  Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.    London,  2nd  ed., 

1861  sqq. 
Gk  F.  MAOLEAR  (D.D..  Head-master  of  King's  College  School) :  Corner- 

sion  of  the  West.     The  English,    London,  1878.    By  the  same:  The 

Kelts,  1878.     (Popular.) 
WILLIAM:  BRIGHT  (Dr.  and  Prof,  of  Eccles.  Hist.,  Oxford) :  Chapters  on 

JBcerly  English  Church  Mstory    Oxford,  1878  (460  pages). 
JOHK  PRYCE  t  XRsfory  of  the  Ancient  JBritish  Church.     Oxlurd,  1 878. 
EDWARD  L.  CUTTS:  Turning  Points  of  English  Church^ History.  London, 

1878. 


2  7.  LITEBATURE.  21 

DUGALD  MACCOLL:  Early  British  Church.    The  Arthurian  Legends.    In 
"The  Catholic  Presbyterian,"  London  and  New  York,  for  1880, 
No,  3,  pp.  176  sqq. 
(b)  The  Christianization  of  Ireland,  Wales,  and  Scotland. 

DR.  LANIGAN  (E.  0.) :  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland.    Dublin,  1829. 

WILLIAM  G.  TODD  (Episc.,  Trinity  Coll.,  Dublin) :  The  Church  of  St. 
Patrick:  An  Historical  Inquiry  into  the  Independence  of  the  Ancient 
Church  of  Ireland.  London,  1844.  By  the  same:  A  History  of  the 
Ancient  Church  of  Ireland.  London,  1845.  By  the  same:  Book  of 
Hymns  of  t/ie  Ancient  Church  of  Ireland.  Dublin,  1855. 

FERDINAND  WALTER:  Das  alte  Wales.    Bonn,  1859. 

JOHN  CUNNINGHAM  (Presbyterian) :  TJie  Church  History  of  Scotland  from 
tJie  Cbmmencement  of  the  Christian  Era  to  the  Present  Day.  Edinburgh, 
1859,  2  vols.  (Vol.  L,  chs.  1-6). 

C.  INNES:  Sketches  of  Early  Scotch  History,  and  Social  Progress.  Edinb., 
1861.  (Eefers  to  the  history  of  local  churches,  the  university  and 
home-life  in  the  mediaeval  period.) 

THOMAS  MoLAUCHLAlsr  (Presbyt.):  The  Early  Scottish  Church:  the  Ec- 
clesiastical History  of  Scotland  from  tlie  First  to  the  Twelfth  Century. 
Edinburgh,  1865. 

*DR.  J.  H.  A.  EBRARD:  Die  iroschottische  MissionsMrche  des  6,  7  und  8 

ten  Jahrh.,  und  ihre  Verbreitung  auf  dem  Festland.     Gutersloh,  1873. 

Comp.  Ebrard's  articles  Die  culdelsche  Kirche  des  6,  7  und  Sten 

Jahrh9in  Niedner's  "Zeitschrift  fur  hist.  Theologie"  for  1862  and 

1863. 

Ebrard  and  McLauchlan  are  the  ablest  advocates  of  the  anti- 
Romish  and  alleged  semi-Protestant  character  of  the  old  Keltic 
church  of  Ireland  and  Scotland;  but  they  present  it  in  a  more  favor- 
able light  than  the  facts  warrant. 

*DR.  W.  D.  EJLLEN  (Presbyt.) :  TJie  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland  from 
the  Earliest  Period  to  the  Present  Times.  London,  1875,  2  vols. 

*ALEX.  PENBOSE  FORBES  (Bishop  of  Brechin,  d.  1875) :  Calendars  of 
Scottish  Saints.  With  Personal  Notices  of  those  of  Alba,  Laudonia  and 
Stratchclyde.  Edinburgh  (Edmonston  &  Douglas),  1872.  By  the 
same:  Lives  of  8.  Ninian  and  S.  Kentigern.  Compiled  in  the  twelfth 
century.  Ed.  from  the  best  MSS.  Edinburgh,  1874. 

*WILLIAM  BEEVES  (Canon,  of  Armagh) :  Life  of  St.  Cblumba,  Founder  of 
Hy.  Written  by  Adamnan,  ninth  Abbot  of  that  monastery.  Edinburgh, 
1874 

*WiiiLiAM  F.  SKENE:  Keltic  Scotland.    Edinburgh,  2  vols.,  1876, 1877. 

*F.  E.  WAKREN  (Fellow  of 'St.  John's  Coll.,  Oxford) :  The.  Liturgy  and 
Ritual  of  the  QeUfc  Church.  Oxford  1881  (291  pp.). 

F. LOOPS:  Antiqwe  Brftonum  Scotorumgue  ecclesfa moves,  ratio  credendi, 

vivendi,  etc.    Lips.,  1882. 


22  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

Oomp.  also  the  relevant  sections  in  the  Histories  of  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Ireland,  by  HUME  (Ch.  1-IIL),  LINGAHO  (Oh.  L  VI1L), 
LAPPEMBEKO  (Vol.  L),  GREEN  (Vol.  L),  HILT.  BURTON  (7/wt  of 
Scotland,  Vol.  I.) ;  MILMAN'S  Latin  Christianity  (Book  IV.,  Ch.  3-5)? 
MACLEAR'S  Apostles  of  Medicwal  Europe  (Lond.  1869),  THOMAS 
SMITH'S  Medical  Missions  (Edinb.  1880). 

§  8.  The  Britons. 

Literature:  The  works  of  BEDE,  GJLDAS,  NENNIUS,  USSBEB,  BJRIGUIT, 
PJRYCE,  quoted  in  g  7. 

Britain  made  its  first  appearance  in  secular  history  half  a  cen- 
tury before  the  Christian  era,  when  Julias  G&sar,  the  conqueror 
of  Gaul,  sailed  with  a  Roman  army  from  Calais  across  the  chan- 
nel, and  added  the  British  island  to  the  dominion  of  the  eternal 
city,  though  it  was  not  fully  subdued  till  the  reign  of  Claudius 
(A.  D.  41-54).  It  figures  in  ecclesiastical  history  from  the  eon- 
version  of  the  Britons  in  the  second  century.  Its  missionary 
history  is  divided  into  two  periods,  the  Keltic  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  both  catholic  in  doctrine^  as  tar  {is  developed  at  that  time, 
slightly  diifering  in  discipline,  yet  bittorly  hostile  under  the 
influence  of  the  antagonism  of  race,  which  was  ultimately  over- 
come in  England  and  Scotland  but  is  still  burning  in  Ireland, 
the  proper  home  of  the  Kelts.  The  Norman  conquest  imtde  both 
races  better  Romanists  than  they  were  before. 

The  oldest  inhabitants  of  Britain,  like  the  Irish,  the  Scots,  and 
the  Gauls,  were  of  Keltic  origin,  half  naked  and  painted  barba- 
rians, quarrelsome,  rapacious,  revengeful,  torn  by  intestine  fac* 
tions,  which  facilitated  their  conquest.  They  had  adopted,  undo* 
different  appellations,  the  gods  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and 
worshipped  a  multitude  of  local  deities,  the  genii  of  tho  woods, 
rivers,  and  mountains;  they  paid  special  homage  to  the  oak,  tho 
king  of  the  forest.  They  offered  the  fruits  of  tho  earth,  tho 
spoils  of  the  enemy,  and,  in  the  hour  of  danger,  human  lives. 
Their  priests,  called  druids,1  dwelt  in  huts  or  caverns,  amid  tho 

1  The  word  Druid  or  Druidh  is  not  from  the  Greek  fy&r,  oak  (as  the  elder 
Pliny  thought),  but  a  Keltic  term  draiod,  meaning  stog^  priest,  and  is  equivalent 
to  the  magi  in  the  ancient  East.  In  the  Irish  Scriptures  draiod  is  used  for 
magi,  Matt.  2 : 1. 


g  8.  THE  BRITONS.  23 

silence  and  gloom  of  the  forest,  were  in  possession  of  all  educa- 
tion and  spiritual  power,  professed  to  know  the  secrets  of  nature, 
medicine  and  astrology,  and  practised  the  arts  of  divination. 
They  taught,  as  the  three  principles  of  wisdom:  "obedience  to 
the  laws  of  God,  concern  for  the  good  of  man,  and  fortitude 
under  the  accidents  of  life."  They  also  taught  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  and  the  fiction  of  metempsychosis.  One  class  of  the 
druids,  who  delivered  their  instructions  m  verse,  were  distin- 
guished by  the  title  of  bards,  who  as  poets  and  musicians  accom- 
panied the  chieftain  to  the  battle-field,  and  enlivened  the  feasts 
of  peace  by  the  sound  of  the  harp.  There  are  still  remains  of 
druidical  temples — the  most  remarkable  at  Stonehenge  on  Salis- 
fyury  Plain,  and  at  Stennis  in  the  Orkney  Islands — that  is,  cir- 
cles of  huge  stones  standing  in  some  cases  twenty  feet  above  the 
earth,  and  near  them  large  mounds  supposed  to  be  ancient  burial- 
places;  for  men  desire  to  be  buried  near  a  place  of  worship. 

The  first  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Britain  is  involved 
in  obscurity.  The  legendary  history  ascribes  it  at  least  to  ten 
different  agencies,  namely,  1)  Bran,  a  British  prince,  and  his  son 
Caradog,  who  is  said  to  have  become  acquainted  with  St.  Paul  in 
Kome,  A.D.  51  to  58,  and  to  have  introduced  the  gospel  into 
his  native  country  on  his  return.  2)  St.  Paul.  3)  St.  Peter. 
4)  St.  Simon  Zelotes.  5)  St.  Philip.  6)  St.  James  die  Great. 
7)  St.  John.  8)  Aristobulus  (Bom.  xvi.  10).  9)  Joseph  of 
Arimathaea,  who  figures  largely  in  the  post-Norman  legends  of 
Glastonbury  Abbey,  and  is  said  to  have  brought  the  holy  Graal 
— the  vessel  or  platter  of  the  Lord's  Supper— -containing  the 
blood  of  Christ,  to  England.  10)  Missionaries  of  Pope  Eleu- 
iherus  from  Borne  to  King  Lucius  of  Britain.1 

1  See  Haddan  &  Stubbs,  Counc.  and  Eccles.  Doc.  I,  22-26,  and  Pryce,  31  sqq. 
Haddan  says,  that  "statements  respecting  (a)  British  Christians  at  Rome,  (6) 
British  Christians  in  Britain,  (c)  Apostles  or  apostolic  men  preaching  in  Bri- 
tain, in  the  first  century — rest  upon  either  guess,  mistake  or  fable  f  and  that 
"evidence  alleged  for  the  existence  of  a  Christian  church  in  Britain  during  the 
second  cemtwry  is  simply  unhistorical."  Pryce  calls  these  early  agencies  "gratui- 
tous assumptions,  plausible  guesses,  or  legendary  fables."  Eusebius,  D/m.  Ev. 
IH  5,  speaks  as  if  some  of  the  Twelve  or  of  the  Seventy  had  "crossed  the 


24  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

But  these  legends  cannot  be  traced  beyond  the  sixth  century, 
and  are  therefore  destitute  of  all  historic  value.  A  visit  of  St. 
Paul  to  Britain  between  A.  D.  63  and  67  is  indeed  in  itself  not 
impossible  (on  the  assumption  of  a  second  Boman  captivity),  and 
has  been  advocated  even  by  such  scholars  as  Ussher  and  Stilling- 
fleet,  but  is  intrinsically  improbable,  and  destitute  of  all  evidence.1 

The  conversion  of  King  Lucius  in  tihe  second  century  through 
correspondence  with  ihe  Boman  bishop  Eleutherus  (176  to  190), 
is  related  by  Bede,  in  connection  with  several  errors,  and  is  a 
legend  rather  than  an  established  fa0t.a  Ircnseus  of  Lyons,  who 
enumerates  all  the  churches  one  by  one,  knows  of  none  in  Britain. 
Yet  the  connection  of  Britain  with  Borne  and  with  Gaul  must 

ocean  to  the  isles  called  British;"  but  the  passage  is  rhetorical  and  indefinite. 
In  his  Church  History  he  omits  Britain  from,  the  apostolic  mission-field. 

1  It  is  merely  an  inference  from  the  well-known  passage  of  Clement  of  Borne, 
Ep.  ad  Corinth,  c.  5,  that  Paul  carried  the  gospel  "to  the  end  of  the  West " 
(kid  rb  r^p/M  lift  dfaeo?).  But  this  is  far  more  naturally  understood  of  a  visit  to 
Spain  which  Paul  intended  (Bom.  xv.  28),  and  which  seems  confirmed  by  a 
passage  in  the  Muratorian  Fragment  about  170  ("  JProfectionem  Pauli  ab  urbe 
ad  Spaniam  proficiscentis") ;  while  there  is  no  trace  whatever  of  an  intended  or 
actual  visit  to  Britain.  Canon  Bright  calls  this  merely  a  ''pious  fancy"  (p.  1), 
and  Bishop  Lightfoot  remarks:  "For  the  patriotic  belief  of  some  English 
"writers,  who  have  included  Britain  in  the  Apostle's  travels,  there  is  neither 
evidence  nor  probability'7  (St.  Clement  of  Borne,  p.  50).  It  is  barely  possible* 
however,  that  some  Galatian  converts  of  Paul,  visiting  the  far  West  to  barter 
the  hair-cloths  of  their  native  land  for  the  useful  metal  of  Britain,  may  have 
first  made  known  the  gospel  to  the  Britons  in  their  kindred  Keltic  tongue.  See 
Lightfoot,  Com.  on  Gal.,  p.  246. 

3  Book  I.,  ck  4:  "Lucius,  king  of  the  Britons,  sent  a  letter  to  Eleutherus, 
entreating  that  by  his  command  he  might  be  made  a  Christian.  He  soon  ob- 
tained his  pious  request,  and  the  Britons  preserved  the  feith,  which  they  had 
received,  uncorrupted  and  entire,  in  peace  audtranquillity,until  the  time  of  the 
Emperor  Diocletian."  Comp.  the  foot-note  of  Giles  inloc.  Haddan  says  (L  25): 
"The  story  of  Lucius  rests  solely  upon  the  later  form  of  the  Cbtahgu*  Psmtifawn 
Itommonm  which  was  written  c.  A.  D.  530,  and  which  adds  to  the  Vita  fflatiheri 
(A.D.  171-186)  that  *  J3w>  (Elwtiwwt)  aocepto  epMam  a  Lwsk  Britannia .%«, 
vt  ChrManus  efficeretur  poor  qu*  mw&tium?  Bat  these  words  are  not  in  the 
original  Qatdlogus,  written  shortly  after  A.D.  363."  Beda  copies  the  Boman 
account  Gildas  knows  nothing  of  Lucius.  According  to  other  accounts,  Lu- 
cius (Lever  Maur,  or  the  Great  Light)  sent  Fagan  and  Bervan  to  Borne,  who 
were  ordained  by  Evajistus  or  Meutherus,  and  on  their  return  established  the 
Britiflh  church.  See  Lingard,  jffijrfory  o/ JS^fari^  L  46. 


2  8.  THE  BRITONS.  25 

have  brought  it  early  into  contact  with  Christianity.  About 
A.  D.  208  Tertullian  exultingly  declared  "that  places  in  Britain 
not  yet  visited  by  Romans  were  subject  to  Christ."1  St.  Alban, 
probably  a  Roman  soldier,  died  as  the  British  proto-martyr  in 
the  Diocletian  persecution  (303),  and  left  the  impress  of  his 
name  on  English  history.3  Constantine,  the  first  Christian  em- 
peror, was  born  in  Britain,  and  his  mother,  St.  Helena,  was 
probably  a  native  of  the  country.  In  the  Council  of  Aries, 
A.  D.  314,  which  condemned  the  Donatists,  we  meet  with  three 
British  bishops,  Eborius  of  York  (Eboracum),  Restitutus  of 
London  (Londinum),  and  Adelfius  of  Lincoln  (Colonia  Londi- 
nensium),  or  Cserleon  in  Wales,  besides  a  presbyter  and  deacon.' 
In  the  Arian  controversy  the  British  churches  sided  with  Atha- 
nasius  and  the  Nicene  Creed,  though  hesitating  about  the  term 
homoousios*  A  notorious  heretic,  Pelagius  (Morgan),  was  from 
the  same  island;  his  abler,  though  less  influential  associate,  Cc- 
lestius,  was  probably  an  Irishman;  but  their  doctrines  were  con- 
demned (429),  and  the  Catholic  faith  reestablished  with  the 
assistance  of  two  Gallic  bishops.5 

Monumental  remains  of  the  British  church  during  the  Roman 
period  are  recorded  or  still  exist  at  Canterbury  (St.  Martin's), 
Cserleon,  Bangor,  Glastonbury,  Dover,  Richborough  (Kent), 
Reculver,  Lyminge,  Brixworth,  and  other  places.6 

The  Roman  dominion  in  Britain  ceased  about  A.  D.  410;  the 

1  Adv.  Judcsos  7:  "Britannorum  inaccma,  Romanis  loco,  Christo  vero  subdtta" 
Bishop  Kaye  (TertvlL,  p.  94)  understands  this  passage  as  referring  to  the  far- 
thest extremities  of  Britain.  So  Barton  (II.  207):  "Parts  of  the  island  which 
had  not  been  visited  by  the  Romans."  See  Bright,  p.  5. 

*  Bede  1. 7.  The  story  of  Si  Alban  is  first  narrated  by  Gildas  in  the  sixth 
century.  Milman  and  Bright  (p,  6)  admit  his  historic  reality. 

8TOtwOi,JEr<wcZ6i«&<^ 

II.  467,  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  L  c.,  1 7.  Haddan  identifies  Colonia  Londinensium 
nith  CoL  Legionensium,  i.  e.  Cserleon-on-Usk. 

«  Soe  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  L  7-10. 

'Bede  L  21  ascribes  the  triumph  of  the  Catholic  faith  over  the  Pelagian 
heresy  to  the  miraculous  healing  of  a  lame  youth  by  Germanus  (St.  Germain), 
Bishop  of  Auzerre,  Comp.  also  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  L 15-17* 

•See Haddan  and  Stubbe,L  36-40. 


26  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A..B.  590  TO  1049. 

troops  were  withdrawn,  and  the  country  left  to  govern  itself*  The 
result  was  a  partial  relapse  into  barbarism  and  a  demoralization 
of  the  church.  The  intercourse  with  the  Continent  was  cut  off, 
and  the  barbarians  of  the  North  pressed  heavily  upon  the  Britons. 
For  a  century  and  a  half  we  hear  nothing  of  the  British  churches 
till  the  silence  is  broken  by  the  querulous  voice  of  Gildas,  who 
informs  us  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy,  the  decay  of  religion, 
the  introduction  and  suppression  of  the  Pelagian  heresy,  and  the 
mission  of  Palladius  to  the  Scots  in  Ireland.  This  long  isolation 
accounts  in  part  for  the  trifling  differences  and  the  bitter  antago- 
nism between  the  remnant  of  the  old  British  church  and  the  new- 
church  imported  from  Rome  among  the  hated  Anglo-Saxons. 

The  difference  was  not  doctrinal,  but  ritualistic  and  discipli- 
nary. The  British  as  well  as  the  Irish  and  Scotch  Christians  of 
the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  kept  Easter  on  the  very  day  of 
the  full  moon  in  March  when  it  was  Sunday,  or  on  the  next 
Sunday  following.  They  adhered  to  the  older  cycle  of  eighty- 
four  years  in  opposition  to  the  later  Dionysian  cycle  of  ninety-five 
years,  which  came  into  use  on  the  Continent  since  the  middle  of 
the  sixth  century.1  They  shaved  the  fore-part  of  their  head  from 
ear  to  ear  in  tihte  form  of  a  crescent,  allowing  the  hair  to  grow 
behind,  in  imitation  of  the  aureola,  instead  of  shaving,  like  the 
Romans,  the  crown  of  the  head  in  a  circular  form,  and  leaving  a 
circle  of  hair,  which  was  to  represent  the  Saviour's  crown  of 
thorns.  They  had,  moreover — and  this  was  the  most  important 
and  most  irritating  difference — become  practically  independent 
of  Borne,  and  transacted  their  business  in  councils  without 
referring  to  the  pope,  who  began  to  be  regarded  on  the  Continent 
as  the  righteous  ruler  and  judge  of  all  Christendom. 

1  The  British  and  Irish  Christians  were  stigmatized  by  their  Roman  oppo- 
nents as  heretical  Quartodeeimaw  (Bede  HE.  4) ;  but  the  Eastern  Quartodecimans 
invariably  celebrated  Easter  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  (hence  their 
designation),  whether  it  fell  on  a  Sunday  or  not;  while  the  Britons  and  Irish 
celebrated  it  always  on  a  Sunday  between  the  14th  and  the  20th  of  the  month; 
the  Komans  between  the  15th  and  21st  Comp.  Skene,  /.  c.  II.  9  sq.;  the  elabo- 
rate discussion  of  Ebrard,  Die  iro-schott  Mvxionskirche,  19-77,  and  Killen, 
JSccles.  Hist,  of  Ireland,  L  57  sqq. 


g  9.  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS.  27 

From  these  facts  some  historians  have  inferred  the  Eastern  or 
Greek  origin  of  the  old  British  church.  But  there  is  no  evidence 
whatever  of  any  such  connection,  unless  it  be  perhaps  through 
the  medium  of  the  neighboring  church  of  Gaul,  which  was  partly 
planted  or  moulded  by  Irenseus  of  Lyons,  a  pupil  of  St.  Poly- 
carp  of  Smyrna,  and  which  always  maintained  a  sort  of  inde- 
pendence of  Home. 

But  in  the  points  of  dispute  just  mentioned,  the  Galilean 
church  at  that  time  agreed  with  Rome.  Consequently,  the 
peculiarities  of  the  British  Christians  must  be  traced  to  their 
insular  isolation  and  long  separation  from  Rome.  The  Western 
church  on  the  Continent  passed  through  some  changes  in  the 
development  of  the  authority  of  the  papal  see,  and  in  the  mode 
of  calculating  Easter,  until  the  computation  was  finally  fixed 
through  Dionysius  Exiguus  in  525.  The  British,  unacquainted 
with  these  changes,  adhered  to  the  older  independence  and  to  the 
older  customs.  They  continued  to  keep  Easter  from  the  14th  of 
the  moon  to  the  20th.  This  difference  involved  a  difference  in 
all  the  moveable  festivals,  and  created  great  confusion  in  Eng- 
land after  the  conversion  of  the  Saxons  to  the  Roman  rite. 

§  9.  The  Anglo-Saxons. 

LITERATURE. 

I.  The  sources  for  the  planting  of  Roman  Christianity  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons  are  several  Letters  of  Pope  GREGORY  I.  (Epp.,  Lib. 
VI.  7,  51,  53,  54,  55,  56,  57,  58,  59;  IX.  11,  108;  XL  28,  29,  64,  65, 
66,  76;  in  Migne's  ed.  of  Gregory's  Opera,  Vol.  IIL;  also  in  Haddan 
and  Stubbs,  III.  5  sqq.) ;  the  first  and  second  books  of  BEDE'S  Eceles. 
Mat.;  GOSOELIBT'S  Ufe  of  St.  Augustin,  written  in  the  llth  century, 
and  contained  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum  of  May  26th;  and  THORITE'S 
Chronicles  of  St.  Augustine's  Abbey*  See  also  HADPAK  and  STUBBS, 
Cbuneik,  etc.,  the  3d  vol.,  which  comes  down  to  A.  D.  840. 

n.  Of  modem  lives  of  St.  Augustin,  we  mention  MOOTALEMBERT, 
Mwiks  of  the  West,  Vol.  HI. ;  Dean  HOOK,  Archbishops  of  Canterbury, 
Vol.  I.,  and  Dean  SxAOTiBY,  Memorials  of  Ganterbury,  1st  ed.,  1855, 
9th  ecU  1880.  Comp.  Lit.  in  Sec.  7. 

British  Christianity  was  always  a  feeble  plant,  and  suffered 
greatly  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest  and  the  devastating  wars 


28  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

which  followed  it.  With  the  decline  of  the  Koman  power,  the 
Britons,  weakened  by  the  vices  of  Koman  civilisation,  and  unable 
to  resist  the  aggressions  of  the  wild  Picts  and  Scots  from  the 
North,  called  Hengist  and  Horsa,  two  brother-princes  and 
reputed  descendants  of  Wbdan,  the  god  of  war,  from  Germany 
to  their  aid,  A.D.  449.1 

From  this  time  begins  the  emigration  of  Saxons,  Angles  or 
Anglians,  Jutes,  and  Frisians  to  Britain,  They  gave  to  it  a  new 
nationality  and  a  new  language,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  which  forms 
the  base  and  trunk  of  the  present  people  and  language  of  Eng- 
land (Angle-land).  They  belonged  to  the  great  Teutonic  race, 
and  came  from  the  Western  and  Northern  parts  of  Germany, 
from  the  districts  North  of  the  Elbe,  the  Weser,  and  the  Eydcr, 
especially  from  Holstein,  Schleswig,  and  Jutland.  They  could 
never  be  subdued  by  the  Romans,  and  the  emperor  Julian  pro- 
nounced them  the  most  formidable  of  all  the  nations  that  dwelt 
beyond  the  Rhine  on  the  shores  of  the  Western  ocean.  They 
were  tall  and  handsome,  with  blue  eyes  and  fair  skin,  strong  and 
enduring,  given  to  pillage  by  land,  and  piracy  by  sea,  leaving 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  with  the  care  of  their  flocks,  to  women 
and  slaves.  They  were  the  fiercest  among  the  Gorman*).  They 
sacrificed  a  tenth  of  their  chief  captives  ou  the  altars  of  their 
gods.  They  used  the  spear,  the  sword,  and  the  battle-axe  with 
terrible  effect.  "We  have  not,"  says  Sidonius,  bishop  of  Cler- 
mont/  "a  more  cruel  and  more  dangerous  enemy  than  the  Sax- 
ons. They  overcome  all  who  have  the  courage  to  oppose  them. 
....  When  they  pursue,  they  infallibly  overtake;  when  they 
are  pursued,  their  escape  is  certain.  They  despise  danger;  they 
are  inured  to  shipwreck;  they  are  eager  to  purchase  booty  with 
the  peril  of  their  lives.  Tempests,  which  to  others  arc  so  dread- 
ful, to  them  are  subjects  of  joy.  The  storm  is  their  protection 
when  they  are  pressed  by  the  enemy,  and  a  cover  for  their  ope- 

1  The  chronology  is  somewhat  uncertain.  See  Lappenberg's  Gtochickto  von 
England,  Bd.  I.,  p.  73  sqq. 

9  Quoted  by  Lingard,  1 62.  The  picture  here  given  corresponds  closely  with 
that  given  in  Beowulfs  Drapa,  from  the  9th  century. 


2  9.  THE  ANGIA^AXOm  29 

rations  when  they  meditate  an  attack."  Like  the  Bedouins  in 
the  East,  and  the  Indians  of  America,  they  were  divided  in 
tribes,  eadbi  with  a  chieftain.  In  times  of  danger,  they  selected  a 
supreme  commander  under  the  name  of  Konyng  or  King,  but 
only  for  a  period. 

These  strangers  from  the  Continent  successfully  repelled  the 
Northern  invaders;  but  being  well  pleased  with  the  fertility  and 
climate  of  the  country,  and  reinforced  by  frequent  accessions 
from  their  countrymen,  they  turned  upon  the  confederate  Britons, 
drove  them  to  the  mountains  of  Wales  and  the  borders  of  Scot- 
land, or  reduced  them  to  slavery,  and  within  a  century  and  a 
half  they  made  themselves  masters  of  England.  From  invaders 
they  became  settlers,  and  established  an  octarchy  or  eight  inde- 
pendent kingdoms,  Kent,  Sussex,  Wessex,  Essex,  Northumbria, 
Mercia,  Bernicia,  and  Deira.  The  last  two  were  often  united 
under  the  same  head;  hence  we  generally  speak  of  but  seven 
kingdoms  or  the  Anglo-Saxon  heptarchy. 

From  this  period  of  the  conflict  between  the  two  races  dates 
the  Keltic  form  of  the  Arthurian  legends,  which  afterwards  un- 
derwent a  radical  telescopic  transformation  in  France.  They 
have  no  historical  value  except  in  connection  with  the  romantic 
poetry  of  mediaeval  religion.1 

1  King  Arthur  (or  Artus),  the  hero  of  Wales,  of  the  Chronicles  of  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  and  the  romances  of  the  Bound  Table,  if  not  entirely  mythical,  was 
one  of  the  last  Keltic  chiefs,  who  straggled  against  the  Sazon  invaders  in  the 
sixth  century.  He  resided  in  great  state  at  Oserleon  in  Wales,  surrounded  by 
valorous  knights,  seated  with  him  at  a  round  table,  gained  twelve  victories  over 
the  Saxons,  and  died  in  the  battle  of  Mount  Badon  or  Badon  Hill  near  Bath 
(A.  D.  520).  The  legend  was  afterwards  christianized,  transferred  to  French 
soil,  and  blended  with  the  Carlovingian  Knights  of  the  Bound  Table,  which 
never  existed.  Arthur's  name  was  also  connected  since  the  Crusades  with  the 
quest  of  the  Holy  Grail  or  Graal  (Keltic  grtal,  old  French  aan  greal  or  gred\ 
i  e.  the  wonderful  bowl-shaped  vessel  of  the  Lord's  Supper  (used  for  the  Paschal 
Lamb,  or,  according  to  another  view,  for  the  cup  of  blessing),  in  which  Joseph 
of  Aritnathsea  caught  the  blood  of  the  Saviour  at  the  cross,  and  which  appears 
in  the  Arthurian  romances  as  the  token  of  the  visible  presence  of  Christ,  or  the 
symbolic  embodiment  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  Hence  the  deriva- 
tion of  Grail  from  sanguit  reatis,  real  blood,  or  sang  royalj  the  Lord's  blood. 
Others  derive  it  from  the  Bomanic  greal,  cup  or  dish;  still  others  from  the 


30  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

§  10.  The  Mission  of  Gregory  and  Augustin.   Conversion 
A.D.  595-604. 

With  the  conquest  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  were  heathen 
barbarians,  Christianity  was  nearly  extirpated  in  Britain.  Priests 
were  cruelly  massacred,  churches  and  monasteries  were  destroyed, 
together  with  the  vestiges  of  a  weak  Roman  civilization.  The 
hatred  and  weakness  of  the  Britons  prevented  them  from  offer- 
ing the  gospel  to  the  conquerors,  who  in  turn  would  have  rejected 
it  from  contempt  of  the  conquered.1 

But  fortunately  Christianity  was  re-introduced  from  a  remote 
country,  and  by  persons  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  quar- 
rels of  the  two  races.  To  Rome,  aided  by  the  influence  of 
France,  belongs  the  credit  of  reclaiming  England  to  Christianity 
and  civilization.  In  England  the  first,  and,  we  may  say,  the 
only  purely  national  church  in  the  West  was  founded,  but  in 
close  union  with  the  papacy,  "The  English  church/'  «ays 
Freeman,  "  reverencing  Rome,  but  not  slavishly  bowing  down 
to  her,  grew  up  with  a  distinctly  national  character,  and  gra- 
dually infused  its  influence  into  all  the  feelings  and  habits  of  the 
English  people.  By  the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  the  inde- 
pendent, insular,  Teutonic  church  had  become  one  of  the  bright- 
est lights  of  the  Christian  firmament.  In  short,  the  introduction 


Latin  graduate.  See  GEOFFKEY  OF  MoNMOTOff,  <7Anmtcon  woe  fjfatoria  - 
tomm  (1130  and  1147,  translated  into  English  by  Aaron  Thomson,  London, 
1718);  Sir  T.  MAXOBY,  ffistory  of  Prince  Arthur  (1480-1486,  new  ed.  by 
Southey,1817)  ;  WOUFEA.M  VON  EgcHBNBAOK,  ParcM  and  Tdwd  (about  1205, 
feansL  by  K.  Simrock,  Stu%.,  1842);  iUcOTONff,  Wof/ram,  von  Jfochmbaoli 
(Berlin,  1833,  2nd  edL,  1854);  CKteCHm,  Die  Sw*mt,PwcM  md  wm  Orcd 
wok  Wolfram  von  Esehen&ack  (Berlin,  1858)  ;  PATOIK  PABIS,  Le*  ftman*  de  la 
TabU  JRonde  (Paris,  1860);  Tteerreotf,  The  I<fy&  of  tfte  King  (1869),  and  The 
Jtoly  QroM  (1869);  Sloans,  Four  Ancient  Jffoofe  of  Wak*  (1868);  8TOAR^ 
OLENKEB,  Arthurian  LoeoMes  (1869)  ;  BiBCH-HrasonFMtit),  Die  Sage  vom  Oral, 
(Leipz.,  1877);  and  an  article  of  (WscHEL,  Grot,  in  the  first  cdL  of  Howsotfa 
V.  312  (omitted  in  the  second  ed.). 


1  Bede  (L  22)  corarts  it  among  the  most  wicked  acts  or  neglects,  rather,  of 
the  Britons  mentioned  even  by  their  own  historian  Gildaa,  that  they  new 
preached  the  Mth  to  the  Saxons  who  dwelt  among  them. 


g  10.  THE  MISSION  OP  GBEGOKY  AND  AUGUSTUS.       31 

of  Christianity  completely  changed  the  position  of  the  English 
nation,  both  within  its  own  island  and  towards  the  rest  of  the 
world."1 

The  origin  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mission  reads  like  a  beautiful 
romance.  Pope  Gregory  I.,  when  abbot  of  a  Benedictine  con- 
vent, saw  in  the  slave-market  of  Rome  three  Anglo-Saxon  boys 
offered  for  sale.  He  was  impressed  with  their  fine  appearance, 
fair  complexion,  sweet  faces  and  light  flaxen  hair;  and  learning, 
to  his  grief,  that  they  were  idolaters,  he  asked  the  name  of  their 
nation,  their  country,  and  their  king.  When  he  heard  that  they 
were  Angles,  he  said:  "Right,  for  they  have  angelic  faces,  and 
are  worthy  to  be  fellow-heirs  with  angels  in  heaven."  They  were 
from  the  province  Deira.  "  Truly,"  he  replied,  "  are  they  De- 
ircHtos,  that  is,  plucked  from  the  ire  of  God,  and  called  to  the 
mercy  of  Christ."  He  asked  the  name  of  their  king,  which  was 
Mil*  or  Elk  (who  reigned  from  559  to  588).  « Hallelujah," 
he  exclaimed,  "the  praise  of  God  the  Creator  must  be  sung  in 
those  parts."  He  proceeded  at  once  from  the  slave  market  to 
the  pope,  and  entreated  him  to  send  missionaries  to  England, 
offering  himself  for  this  noble  work.  He  actually  started  for  the 
spiritual  conquest  of  the  distant  island.  But  the  Romans  would 
not  part  with  him,  called  him  back,  and  shortly  afterwards 
elected  him  pope  (590).  "What  he  could  not  do  in  person,  he 
carried  out  through  others.2 

In  the  year  596,  Gregory,  remembering  his  interview  with,  the 
sweet-faced  and  fair-haired  Anglo-Saxon  slave-boys,  and  hearing 
of  a  favorable  opportunity  for  a  mission,  sent  the  Benedictine 
abbot  AtTGTOTiisr  (Austin),  thirty  otiher  monks,  and  a  priest,  Lau- 
rentius,  with  instructions,  letters  of  recommendation  to  the  Frank 

1  History  of  the  Norman  conquest  of  England,  Vol.  L,  p.  22  (Oxford  ed.  of  1873). 

*  Beda  (B.  H.,  dbu  1  at  the  close)  received  this  account  "from  the  ancients  » 
(ab  antiqwis,  or  traditions  majonm),  bat  gives  it  as  an  episode,  not  as  a  part  o« 
the  English  mission  (which  is  related  I  53).  The  elaborate  play  on  words 
excites  critical  suspicion  of  the  truth  of  the  story,  which,  though  well  told,  is 
probably  invented  or  embellished,  like  so  many  legends  about  Gregory.  "Be 
non  vero,  e  ben  troyato." 


32  TOTJRTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

kings  and  several  bishops  of  Gaul,  and  a  few  books,  to  England.1 
The  missionaries,  accompanied  by  some  interpreters  from  France, 
landed  on  the  isle  of  Thanet  in  Kent,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames.2  King  Ethelbert,  by  his  marriage  to  Berfha,  a  Christian 
princess  from  Paris,  who  had  brought  a  bishop  with  her,  was 
already  prepared  for  a  change  of  religion.  He  went  to  meet  the 
btrangers  and  received  them  in  the  open  air;  being  afraid  of 
some  magic  if  he  were  to  see  them  under  roof.  They  bore  a 
silver  cross  for  their  banner,  and  the  image  of  Christ  painted 
on  a  board;  and  after  singing  the  litany  and  offering  prayers 
for  themselves  and  the  people  whom  they  had  come  to  convert, 
they  preached  the  gospel  through  their  Frank  interpreters.  The 
king  was  pleased  with  the  ritualistic  and  oratorical  display  of 
the  new  religion  from  distant,  mighty  Borne,  and  said:  "Your 
words  and  promises  are  very  fair;  but  as  they  are  new  to  us  and 
of  uncertain  import,  I  cannot  forsake  the  religion  I  have  so  long 
followed  with  the  whole  English  nation.  Yet  as  you  are  come 
from  far,  and  are  desirous  to  benefit  us,  I  will  supply  you  with 
the  necessary  sustenance,  and  not  forbid  you  to  preach  and  to 
convert  as  many  as  you  can  to  your  religion."3  Accordingly, 
he  allowed  them  to  reside  in  the  City  of  Canterbury  (Dorovcrn, 
Durovemum),  which  was  the  metropolis  of  his  kingdom,  and 
was  soon  to  become  the  metropolis  of  the  Church  of  England. 
They  preached  and  led  a  severe  monastic  life.  Several  believed 
and  were  baptized,  " admiring/'  as  Bede  says,  "the  simplicity  of 
their  innocent  life,  and  the  sweetness  of  their  heavenly  doctrine." 
He  also  mentions  miracles.  Gregory  warned  Augustin  not  to 
be  puffed  up  by  miracles,  but  to  rejoice  with  fear,  and  to  tremble 

1  Among  these  boots  were  a  Bible  in  2  vols.,  a  Pbalter,  a  book  of  the  Gospels, 
a  Martyrology,  Apocryphal  Lives  of  the  Apostles,  and  some  Commentaries. 
"These  are  the  foundation  or  beginning  of  the  library  of  the  whole  English 
church," 

2  The  first  journey  of  Angnstin,  in  595,  was  a  fiulure.    He  started  finally  for 
England  Jnly  23d,  596,  wintered  in  Ganl,  and  landed  in  England  the  IbUowing 
year  with  about  forty  persons,  including  Gallic  priests  and  interpreters.    Had* 
dan  and  Stabbe,  IIL  4. 

*BedeL25. 


2  10.  THE  MISSION  OF  GREGOBY  AND  AUGUSTIN.        33 

in  rejoicing,  remembering  what  the  Lord  said  to  his  disciples 
when  they  boasted  that  even  the  devils  were  subject  to  them. 
For  not  all  the  elect  work  miracles,  and  yet  the  names  of  all  are 
written  in  heaven.1 

King  Ethelbert  was  converted  and  baptized  (probably  June 
2,  597),  and  drew  gradually  his  whole  nation  after  him,  though 
he  was  taught  by  the  missionaries  not  to  use  compulsion,  since 
the  service  of  Christ  ought  to  be  voluntary. 

Augustin,  by  order  of  pope  Gregory,  was  ordained  archbishop 
of  the  English  nation  by  Vergilius,2  archbishop  of  Aries,  Nov. 
16,  597,  and  became  the  first  primate  of  England,  with  a  long 
line  of  successors  even  to  this  day.  On  his  return,  at  Christmas, 
he  baptized  more  than  ten  thousand  English.  His  talents  and 
character  did  not  rise  above  mediocrity,  and  he  bears  no  compa- 
rison whatever  with  his  great  namesake,  the  theologian  and 
bishop  of  Hippo;  but  he  was,  upon  the  whole,  well  fitted  for  his 
missionary  work,  and  his  permanent  success  lends  to  his  name  the 
halo  of  a  borrowed  greatness.  He  built  a  church  and  monastery 
at  Canterbury,  the  mother-church  of  Anglo-Saxon  Christendom. 
He  sent  the  priest  Laurentius  to  Rome  to  inform  the  pope  of  his 
progress  and  to  ask  an  answer  to  a  number  of  questions  concern- 
ing the  conduct  of  bishops  towards  their  clergy,  the  ritualistic 
differences  between  the  Roman  and  the  Galilean  churches,  the 
marriage  of  two  brothers  to  two  sisters,  the  marriage  of  relations, 
whether  a  bishop  may  be  ordained  without  other  bishops  being 
present,  whether  a  woman  with  child  ought  to  be  baptized,  how 
long  after  the  birth  of  an  infant  carnal  intercourse  of  married 
people  should  be  delayed,  etc.  Gregory  answered  these  que&- 
tions  very  fully  in  the  legalistic  and  ascetic  spirit  of  the 

1  "Son  enim  omnes  clecti  miracula  faciunt,  sed  famen  eorwn,  omnium  nomina  in 
talo  sunt  owrtpto"  Gwg«»  Ad  Augustinvn  A^gl^rum  Epucopwn,  Epp.  Lib. 
XL  28,  and  Bedel.  31. 

1  Not  JBtoerius,  as  Bede  has  it,  L  27,  and  in  other  places.  JEtheriua  was  the 
contemporary  archbishop  of  Lyons. 


34  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

age,  yet,  upon  the  whole,  with  much  good  sense  and  pastoral 
wisdom.1 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  pope,  unlike  his  successors,  did  not 
insist  on  absolute  conformity  to  the  Roman  church,  but  advises 
Augustin,  who  thought  that  the  different  customs  of  the  Gallican 
church  were  inconsistent  with  the  unity  of  faith,  "to  choose  from 
every  church  those  things  that  are  pious,  religious  and  upright;" 
for  "things  are  not  to  be  loved  for  the  sake  of  places,  but 
places  for  the  sake  of  good  things."2  In  oilier  respects,  the 
advice  falls  in  with  the  papal  system  and  practice.  Ho  directs 
the  missionaries  not  to  destroy  the  heathen  temples,  but  to 
convert  them  into  Christian  churches,  to  substitute  the  wor- 
ship of  relics  for  the  worship  of  idols,  and  to  allow  the  new 
converts,  on  the  day  of  dedication  and  other  iestivitioK,  to 
kill  cattle  according  to  their  ancient  custom,  yet  no  more  to 
the  devils,  but  to  the  praise  of  God;  for  it  is  impossible,  he 
thought,  to  efface  everything  at  once  from  their  obduruto  minds; 
and  he  who  endeavors  to  ascend  to  the  highest  place,  must  rise 
by  degrees  or  steps,  and  not  by  leaps.3  This  method  was  faith- 
fully followed  by  his  missionaries.  It  no  doubt  facilitated  the 

1  Bede  1. 27  sqq.  gives  extracts  from  Gregory's  answers.  It  is  curious  how 
the  pope  handles  such  delicate  subjects  as  the  monthly  courses  and  the  carnal 
intercourse  between  married  people.  A  husband,  he  says,  should  not  approach 
his  wife  after  the  birth  of  an  infant,  till  the  infant  be  weanod.  Mothers  should 
not  give  their  children  to  other  women  to  suckle.  A  man  who  has  approached 
his  wife  is  not  to  enter  the  church  unless  washed  with  water  and  till  after  mm- 
set.  We  see  here  the  genius  of  Bomanism  which  aims  to  control  by  its  legisla- 
tion all  the  ramifications  of  human  life,  and  to  shackle  the  conscience  by  a 
subtle  and  minute  casuistry.  Barbarians,  however,  must  be  treated  like  children* 

*  "Non  enim  pro  locis  res,  sed  pro  Ionia  rebus  kca  omrumda  wnt.  Me  tingvMs 
ergo  guibusdam  ecdems,  quvpia,  gun  religiosa,  qua  recta  word,  e%«,  et  hose  quasi  m 
fasciculwn  eoUecfa,  a/pud  Anglorum  mentea  in  consuetudmem  depone.'*  Gr*  JReapons, 
ad  interrogat.  Aug.,  JEp.  XL  64,  and  Bede  I.  27. 

8  "Is  qui  locum  mmmum  ascendere  nittiur,  gradibw  vd  pastibus,  non  awtem 
taMbus  demtur"  Ep.  lib.  XL  76  (and  Bede  L  30).  This  episfle  of  the  year  601 
is  addressed  to  Mellitus  on  his  way  to  England,  but  is  intended  for  Augustan  ad 
fariliorem  Anglorum  wnversionem.  In  Sardinia,  where  Christianity  already  pre- 
vailed, Gregory  advised  Bishop  Januarius  to  suppress  the  remaining  heathen- 
ism by  imprisonment  and  corporal  punishment 


g  11.  ANTAGONISM  OF  THE  SAXON  AND  BEITISH  CLERGY.  35 

nominal  conversion  of  England,  but  swept  a  vast  amount  of 
heathenism  into  the  Christian  church,  which  it  took  centuries  to 
eradicate. 

Gregory  sent  to  Augustin,  June  22,  601,  the  metropolitan 
pall  (pattium),  several  priests  (Mellitus,  Justus,  Paulinas,  and 
others),  many  books,  sacred  vessels  and  vestments,  and  relics 
of  apostles  and  martyrs.  He  directed  him  to  ordain  twelve 
bishops  in  the  archiepiscopal  diocese  of  Canterbury,  and  to  ap- 
point an  archbishop  for  York,  who  was  also  to  ordain  twelve 
bishops,  if  the  country  adjoining  should  receive  the  word  of  God. 
Mellitus  was  consecrated  the  first  bishop  of  London;  Justus, 
bishop  of  Rochester,  both  in  604  by  Augustin  (without  assist- 
ants); Paulinus,  the  first  archbishop  of  York,  625,  after  the 
death  of  Gregory  and  Augustin.1  The  pope  sent  also  letters 
and  presents  to  king  Ethelbert,  "his  most  excellent  son/7  ex- 
horting him  to  persevere  in  the  faith,  to  commend  it  by  good 
works  among  his  subjects,  to  suppress  the  worship  of  idols,  and 
to  follow  the  instructions  of  Augustin. 

§  11.  Antagonism  of  the  Saxon  and  British  Clergy. 

BEDB,  II.  2;  HADDAH  and  STTTBBS,  DDL  38-41. 

Augustin,  with  the  aid  of  king  Ethelbert,  arranged  (in  602  or 
603)  a  conference  with  the  British  bishops,  at  a  place  in  Sussex 
near  the  banks  of  the  Severn  under  an  oak,  called  t£  Augiistin's 
Oak." a  He  admonished  them  to  conform  to  the  Eoman  ceremo- 
nial in  the  observance  of  Easter  Sunday,  and  the  mode  of  admi- 
nistering baptism,  and  to  unite  with  their  Saxon  brethren  in 
converting  the  Gentiles.  Augustin  had  neither  wisdom  nor 
charily  enough  to  sacrifice  even  the  most  trifling  ceremonies  on 
the  altar  of  peace.  He  was  a  pedantic  and  contracted  churchman. 
He  met  the  Britons,  who  represented  at  all  events  an  older  and 
native  Christianity,  with  the  haughty  spirit  of  Borne,  which  is 

1  York  and  London  had  been  the  first  metropolitan  sees  among  the  Britons. 
London  was  even  then,  as  Bede  (II.  3)  remarks,  a  mart  of  many  nations  resort- 
ing to  it  by  sea  and  land. 

2  On  the  time  and  place  of  the  two  conferences  see  the  notes  in  Haddan  and 
Stubbs,  III.  40  and  41. 


36  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

willing  to  compromise  with  heathen  customs,  but  demands  abso- 
lute submission  from  all  other  forms  of  Christianity,  and  hates 
independence  as  the  worst  of  heresies. 

The  Britons  preferred  their  own  traditions.  After  much  use- 
less contention,  Augustin  proposed,  and  the  Britons  reluctantly 
accepted,  an  appeal  to  the  miraculous  interposition  of  God.  A 
blind  man  of  the  Saxon  race  was  brought  forward  and  restored 
to  sight  by  his  prayer.  The  Britons  still  refused  to  give  up 
their  ancient  customs  without  the  consent  of  their  people,  and 
demanded  a  second  and  larger  synod. 

At  the  second  Conference,  seven  bishops  of  the  Britons,  with 
a  number  of  learned  men  from  the  Convent  of  Bangor,  appeared, 
and  were  advised  by  a  venerated  hermit  to  submit  the  Saxon 
archbishop  to  the  moral  test  of  meekness  and  humility  as  required 
by  Christ  from  his  followers.  If  Augustin,  at  the  meeting, 
shall  rise  before  them,  they  should  hear  him  submissively; 
but  if  he  shall  not  rise,  they  should  despise  him  as  a  proud 
man.  As  they  drew  near,  the  Roman  dignitary  remained 
seated  in  his  chair.  He  demanded  of  them  three  things,  viz. 
compliance  with  the  Roman  observance  of  the  time  of  Easter, 
the  Roman  form  of  baptism,  and  aid  in  efforts  to  convert  the 
English  nation;  and  then  he  would  readily  tolerate  their  other 
peculiarities.  They  refused,  reasoning  among  themselves,  if  he 
will  not  rise  up  before  us  now,  how  much  more  will  he  despise 
us  when  we  shall  be  subject  to  his  authority?  Augustin  in- 
dignantly rebuked  them  and  threatened  the  divine  vengeance 
by  the  arms  of  the  Saxons.  "  All  which,"  adds  Bede,  "through 
the  dispensation  of  the -divine  judgment,  fell  out  exactly  as  ho 
had  predicted."  For,  a  few  years  afterwards  (613),  Etihelfrith 
the  Wild,  the  pagan  King  of  JSTorthumbria,  attacked  the  Britons 
at  Chester,  and  destroyed  not  only  their  army,  but  slaughtered 
several  hundred1  priests  and  monks,  who  accompanied  the  sol- 
diers to  aid  them  with  their  prayers.  The  massacre  was  followed 

1  Bede  mentions  twelve  hundred,  but  the  Saxon  chronicle  (A,  t>.  607)  only 
two  hundred. 


g  12.  CONVERSION  OF  THE  OTHEE  KINGDOMS.  37 

by  the  destruction  of  the  flourishing  monastery  of  Bangor, 
where  more  than  two  thousand  monks  lived  by  the  labor  of 
their  hands. 

This  is  a  sad  picture  of  the  fierce  animosity  of  the  two  races 
and  rival  forms  of  Christianity.  Unhappily,  it  continues  to  the 
present  day,  but  with  a  remarkable  difference:  the  Keltic  Irish 
who,  like  the  Britons,  once  represented  a  more  independent  type 
of  Catholicism,  have,  since  the  Norman  conquest,  and  still  more 
since  the  Eeformation,  become  intense  Eomanists;  while  the 
English,  once  the  dutiful  subjects  of  Rome,  have  broken  with 
that  foreign  power  altogether,  and  have  vainly  endeavored  to 
force  Protestantism  upon  the  conquered  race.  The  Irish  pro- 
blem will  not  be  solved  until  the  double  curse  of  national  and 
religious  antagonism  is  removed. 

§  12.  Conversion  of  the  Other  Kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy. 

Augustin,  the  apostle  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  died  A.  D.  604, 
and  lies  buried,  with  many  of  his  successors,  in  the  venerable 
cathedral  of  Canterbury.  On  his  tomb  was  written  this  epitaph : 
"Here  rests  the  Lord  Augustin,  first  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
who  being  formerly  sent  hither  by  the  blessed  Gregory,  bishop 
of  the  city  of  Borne,  and  by  God's  assistance  supported  with 
miracles,  reduced  king  Ethelbert  and  his  nation  from  the  wor- 
ship of  idols  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  having  ended  the  days 
of  his  office  in  peace,  died  on  the  26th  day  of  May,  in  the  reign 
of  the  same  king." x 

He  was  not  a  great  man;  but  he  did  a  great  work  in  laying 
the  foundations  of  English  Christianity  and  civilization. 

Laurentius  (604-619),  and  afterwards  MeUitus  (619-624)  suc- 
ceeded him  in  his  office. 

Other  priests  and  monks  were  sent  from  Italy,  and  brought 
with  i&em  books  and  such  culture  as  remained  after  the  irrup- 
tion of  the  barbarians.  The  first  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and 
York,  and  the  bishops  of  most  of  tike  Southern  sees  were  foreign- 

1  Bede  II,  c,  3 ;  Haddan  and  Stubb6,HL  53. 


38  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1049. 

ers,  if  not  consecrated,  at  least  commissioned  by  the  pope,  and 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence  with  Borne.  Gradually  a 
native  clergy  arose  in  England. 

The  work  of  Christianization  went  on  among  the  other  king- 
doms of  the  heptarchy,  and  was  aided  by  the  marriage  of  kings 
with  Christian  wives,  but  was  more  than  once  interrupted  by 
relapse  into  heathenism.  Northumbria  was  converted  chiefly 
through  the  labors  of  the  sainted  AIDAN  (d.  Aug.  31,  651),  a 
monk  from  the  island  lona  or  Hii,  and  the  first  bishop  of  Lin- 
djsfarne,  who  is  even  lauded  by  Bede  for  his  zeal,  piety  and 
good  works,  although  he  differed  from  him  on  the  Easter  ques- 
tion.1 Sussex  was  the  last  part  of  the  Heptarchy  which  re- 
nounced paganism.  It  took  nearly  a  hundred  years  before 
England  was  nominally  converted  to  the  Christian  religion.2 

To  this  conversion  England  owes  her  national  unity  aud  the 
best  elements  of  her  civilization.3 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Christianity  was  and  continued  to  be  till 
the  Reformation,  the  Christianity  of  Rome,  with  its  excellences 
and  faults.  It  included  the  Latin  mass,  the  worship  of  saints, 
images  and  relics,  monastic  virtues  and  vices,  pilgrimages  to  the 
holy  city,  and  much  credulity  and  superstition.  Even  kings 
abdicated  their  crown  to  show  their  profound  reverence  for  the 
supreme  pontiff  and  to  secure  from  him  a  passport  to  heaven. 
Chapels,  churches  and  cathedrals  were  erected  in  the  towns; 
convents  founded  in  the  country  by  the  bank  of  the  river  or 
under  the  shelter  of  a  hill,  and  became  rich  by  pious  donations 
of  land.  The  lofty  cathedrals  and  ivy-clad  ruins  of  old  abbeys 

1  Bede  HL,  c.  14-17;  V.  24. 

9  See  the  details  of  the  missionary  labors  in  the  seven  kingdoms  In  Bede; 
also  in  Milman- 1  c.;  and  the  documents  in  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  vol.  IIL 

*  "The  conversion  of  the  heptarchic  kingdom,"  says  Professor  Stubbs  (Con- 
stitutional History  of  England,  Vol.  I.,  p.  217),  "during  the  seventh  century  not 
only  revealed  to  Europe  and  Christendom  the  existence  of  a  new  nation,  but 
may  be  said  to  have  rendered  the  new  nation  conscious  of  its  unity  in  a  way  in 
which,  under  the  influence  of  heathenism,  community  of  language  and  custom 
had  felled  to  do." 


g  13.  CX)NFOEMITY  TO  KOME  ESTABLISHED.  39 

and  cloisters  in  England  and  Scotland  still  remain  to  testify  in 
solemn  silence  to  the  power  of  mediaeval  Catholicism. 

§  13.  Conformity  to  Rome  Established.    Wilfrid,  Theodore,  Bede. 

The  dispute  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  Roman,  and  the 
British  ritual  was  renewed  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
but  ended  with  the  triumph  of  the  former  in  England  proper. 
The  spirit  of  independence  had  to  take  refuge  in  Ireland  and 
Scotland  till  the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest,  which  crushed 
it  out  also  in  Ireland. 

WILFRID,  afterwards  bishop  of  York,  the  first  distinguished 
native  prelate  who  combined  clerical  habits  with  haughty  mag- 
nificence, acquired  celebrity  by  expelling  "the  quartodeciman 
heresy  and  schism,"  as  it  was  improperly  called,  from  Nbrthum- 
bria,  where  the  Scots  had  introduced  it  through  St.  Aidan.  The 
controversy  was  decided  in  a  Synod  held  at  Whitby  in  664  in 
the  presence  of  King  Oswy  or  Oswio  and  his  son  Alfrid.  Col- 
man,  the  second  successor  of  Aidan,  defended  the  Scottish  obser- 
vance of  Easter  by  tiie  authority  of  St.  Columba  and  the  apostle 
John.  Wilfrid  rested  the  Roman  observance  on  the  authority 
of  Peter,  who  had  introduced  it  in  Rome,  and  on  the  universal 
custom  of  Christendom.  When  he  mentioned,  that  to  Peter 
were  intrusted  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  king  said: 
"I  will  not  contradict  the  door-keeper,  lest  when  I  come  to  the 
gates  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  there  should  be  none  to  open 
them/'  By  this  irresistible  argument  the  opposition  was  broken, 
and  conformity  to  the  Roman  observance  established.  The 
Scottish  semi-circular  tonsure  also,  which  was  ascribed  to  Simon 
Magus,  gave  way  to  tiie  circular,  which  was  derived  from  St.  Peter. 
Colman,  being  worsted,  returned  with  his  sympathizers  to  Scot- 
land, where  he  built  two  monasteries.  Tuda  was  made  bishop  in 
his  place.1 

Soon  afterwards,  a  dreadful  pestilence  raged  through  England 

1  See  a  fall  account  of  this  controversy  in  Bede,  HL,  c.  25,  26,  and  in  Haddan 
and  Stubborn.  100-106. 


40  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

and  Ireland,  while  Caledonia  was  saved,  as  the  pious  inhabitants 
believed,  by  the  intercession  of  St.  Columba. 

The  fusion  of  English  Christians  was  completed  in  the  age  of 
Theodoras,  archbishop  of  Canterbury  (669  to  690),  and  Beda 
Venerabilis  (b.  673,  d.  735),  presbyter  and  monk  of  Weormouth. 
About  the  same  time  Anglo-Saxon  literature  was  born,  and  laid 
the  foundation  for  the  development  of  the  national  genius  which 
ultimately  broke  loose  from  Rome. 

THEODORE  was  a  native  of  Tarsus,  where  Paul  was  born,  edu- 
cated in  Athens,  and,  of  course,  acquainted  with  Greek  and  Latin 
learning.    He  received  his  appointment  and  consecration  to  the 
primacy  of  England  from  Pope  Vitalian.    He  arrived  at  Can- 
terbury May  27,  669,  visited  the  whole  of  England,  established 
the  Roman  rule  of  Easter,  and  settled  bishops  in  all  the  sees 
except  London.    He  unjustly  deposed  bishop  Wilfrid  of  York, 
who  was  equally  devoted  to  Rome,  but  in  his  later  years  be- 
came involved  in  sacerdotal  jealousies  and  strifes.    He  intro- 
duced order  into  the  distracted  church  and  some  degree  of 
education  among  the  clergy.    He  was  a  man  of  autocratic  tem- 
per, great  executive  ability,  and,  having  been  directly  sent  from 
Rome,  he  carried  with  him  double  authority.    "He  was  the 
first  archbishop,"  says  Bede,  "to  whom  the  whole  church  of 
England  submitted."  During  his  administration  the  first  Anglo- 
Saxon  mission  to  the  mother-country  of  the  Saxons  and  JFricsians 
was  attempted  by  Egbert,  Victberct,  and  Willibrord  (689  to 
692).    His  chief  work  is  a  "  Penitential "  with  minute  directions 
for  a  moral  and  religious  life,  and  punishments  for  drunkenness, 
licentiousness,  and  other  prevalent  vices.1 

The  VENERABLE  BEDE  was  the  first  native  English  scholar, 
the  father  of  English  theology  and  church  history.  He  spent  his 
humble  and  peaceful  life  in  the  acquisition  and  cultivation  of 

1  The  works  of  Theodore  (Bmiteirftofe,  etc.)  in  IMBgne's  Prtrd.,  Tom.  90,  p. 
902.  ComP.a]iwBede,  IV.  ^  Brigh^ 
DDL  114-227,  where  his  Penitential  is  given  in  ML    It  was  probably  no  direct 


It  presupposes  a  very  bad  state  of  morals  among  the  clergy  of  that  age. 


?  13.  CONFORMITY  TO  EOME  ESTABLISHED.  41 

ecclesiastical  and  secular  learning,  wrote  Latin  in  prose  and 
verse,  and  translated  portions  of  the  Bible  into  Anglo-Saxon. 
His  chief  work  is  his — the  only  reliable — Church  History  of  old 
England.  He  guides  us  with  a  gentle  hand  and  in  truly  Chris- 
tian spirit,  though  colored  by  Roman  views,  from,  court  to  court, 
from  monastery  to  monastery,  and  bishopric  to  bishopric,  through 
the  missionary  labyrinth  of  the  miniature  kingdoms  of  his  native 
island.  He  takes  the  Roman  side  in  the  controversies  with  the 
British  churches.1 

Before  Bede  cultivated  Saxon  prose,  Csedmon  (about  680), 
first  a  swine-herd,  then  a  monk  at  Whitby,  sung,  as  by  inspira- 
tion, the  wonders  of  creation  and  redemption,  and  became  the 
father  of  Saxon  (and  Christian  German)  poetry.  His  poetry 
brought  the  Bible  history  home  to  the  imagination  of  the  Saxon 
people,  and  was  a  faint  prophecy  of  the  "Divina  Comedia"  and 
the  "Paradise  Lost."2  We  have  a  remarkable  parallel  to  this 
association  of  Bede  and  Csedmon  in  the  association  of  "Wiclif, 
the  first  translator  of  the  whole  Bible  into  English  (1380),  and 
the  contemporary  of  Chaucer,  the  father  of  English  poetry,  both 
forerunners  of  the  British  Reformation,  and  sustaining  a  relation 
to  Protestant  England  somewhat  similar  to  the  relation  which 
Bede  and  Csedmon  sustain  to  mediaeval  Catholic  England. 

The  conversion  of  England  was  nominal  and  ritual,  rather 
than  intellectual  and  moral.  Education  was  confined  to  the 
clergy  and  monks,  and  consisted  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Deca- 
logue, tlie  Creed  and  the  Pater  Koster,  a  little  Latin,  without 
any  Greek  or  Hebrew.  The  Anglo-Saxon  clergy  were  only  less 
ignorant  than  the  British.  The  ultimate  triumph  of  the  Roman 

1  See  Karl  Werner  (B.  Q),  Beda  und  seine  Zdi,  1875.  Bright,  I  c.,  pp.  S26  sqq. 

8  JBeda,  Hist.  JSbcZ.  Anyl,  IV.  24.  Cfadffnonia  monadii  Paraphrases  pjoetica  Gem- 
aw*  ae  prcwiptwrum  aoeroe  paginae  HwtorwirMm,  ed.  F.  Junius,  Amst,  1655;  mo- 
iiern  editions  by  B.  Thorpe,  Lond.,  1832,  and  0.  W.  M,  Grein,  Getting.,  1857. 
Bouterwok,  Ctedmon's  des  Angekaehen  b&lische  Dicfoungen,  Elberfeld,  1849-54, 
2  Parts.  F.  Hammerich,  JBltcste  christiiche  Jtyrik  der  Angdswhsen,  Dwteeken,  und 
Nordltinder.  Transl.  from  the  Danish  by  Michelsen,  1874.  Comp.  also  the 
literature  on  the  German  Heliand,  \  27* 


42  FOUETH  PERIOD,    A.D.  540  TO  1049 

church  was  due  chiefly  to  her  superior  organization,  her  direcf 
apostolic  descent,  and  the  prestige  of  the  Roman  empire.  Tt 
made  the  Christianity  of  England  independent  of  politico  and 
court-intrigues,  and  kept  it  in  close  contact  with  the  Christianity 
of  the  Continent.  The  advantages  of  this  connection  were  g  reater 
than  the  dangers  and  evils  of  insular  isolation.  Among  *  II  the 
Teutonic  tribes,  the  English  became  the  most  devoted  subjects  of 
the  Pope.  They  sent  more  pilgrims  to  Borne  and  more  money 
into  the  papal  treasury  than  any  other  nation.  They  invented 
the  Peter's  Pence.  At  least  thirty  of  their  kings  and  queens,  and 
an  innumerable  army  of  nobles  ended  their  days  in  cloistral 
retreats.  Nearly  all  of  the  public  lands  were  deeded  to  churches 
and  monasteries.  But  the  exuberance  of  monasticiBm  weakened 
the  military  and  physical  force  of  the  nation,  and  facilitated  the 
Danish  and  the  Norman  conquests.  The  power  and  riches  of 
the  church  secularized  the  clergy,  and  necessitated  in  due  time  a 
reformation.  Wealth  always  tends  to  vice,  and  vice  to  decay. 
The  Norman  conquest  did  not  change  the  ecclesiastical  relations 
of  England,  but  infused  new  blood  and  vigor  into  the  Saxon 
race,  which  is  all  the  better  for  its  mixed  character. 

"We  add  a  list  of  the  early  archbishops  and  bishops  of  the  four 
principal  English  sees,  in  tibie  order  of  their  foundation:1 

Oard&rbury.  London.  Rochester.  York 

Augustm 597  Mellitus 604  Justus 604  Paulinas 625 

Laurentius 604  [Cedd  in  Essex  654]  Bomanus 624  Chad 665 

Mellitus 619  Winl 666  Paulinus 633  Wilfrid,  —  conse- 

Justus. 624Ercowald 675Ithamar 644     crated   665,   in 

Honorius 627  Waldhere 693  Damian 655     possession  ........669 

Deusdedit 655  Ingwald 704  Putta 669  Bosa 678 

Theodore 668  Cmchelm 676  Wilfrid  again 686 

Brihtwald 693  Gebmund 678  Bosa  again 691 

Tatwin 731  Tobias 693  John 706 

1  From  Bright,  p.  449,  compared  with  the  dates  in  Haddan  and  Stubbe,  Vol.  Ill 


3  14.    THE  CONVEBSION  OF  IRELAND.  43 

§  14.  The  Conversion  of  Ireland.    St.  Patrick  and  St.  Bridget. 

LITERATURE. 

L  The  writings  of  ST.  PATRICK  are  printed  in  the  Vita  Sanctorum  of 

the  Bollandists,  sub  March  17th;  in  PATRICII  Opuscula,  ed.  Warseus 

(Sir  James  Ware,  Lond.,  1656) ;  in  Migne's  Patrolog.,  Tom.  LIIL 

790-839,  and  with  critical  notes  in  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils, 

etc.,  Vol.  II,  Part  II,  (1878),  pp.  296-323. 
IL  The  Life  of  St.  Patrick  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  Mart.,  Tom.  IE. 

517  sqq. 

TILLEMONT:  Mmoires,  Tom.  XVI.  452,  781. 
USSHEB:  JBrit.  Eccl.  Antiqu. 

J.  H.  TODD:  St.  Patrick,  Apostle  of  Ireland.    Dublin,  1864. 
C.  JOH.  GJEtErra  (K.  0.) :  Geschichte  der  altirischen  Kirche  und  ihr&r  Ver- 

bindung  mit  Bom.,  Gallien  und  Alemannien,  ah  Elnldtung  in  die  Ge~ 

echichte  des  Stifts  St.  Gallen.    Freiburg  i.  B.  1867. 
DANIEL  PE  VINSTE  :  ttstory  of  the  Irish  Primitive  Church,  together  with 

the  Life  of  St.  Patrick.    N.  York,  1870. 
J.  FRANCIS  SHERMAN  (E.  0.):   LOGO.  Patridana:  an  Identification  of 

Localities,  chiefly  in  Leinster,  visited  by  &t.  Patrick.    Dublin,  1879. 
F.  E.  WARREN  (Episc.):  The  Manuscript  Irish  Missal  at  Corpus  Ckristi 

College,  Oxford,.    London,  1879.jKitoZ  of  the  Celtic  Church.  Oxf.  1881. 
Comp.  also  the  works  of  TODD,  MoLAucHLA2sr,  EBRARD,  KILLEN, 

and  SKENE,  quoted  in  g  7,  and  FORBES,  Calendars  of  Scottish  Saints, 

p.  431. 

The  church-history  of  Ireland  is  peculiar.  It  began  with  an 
independent  catholicity  (or  a  sort  of  semi-Protestantism),  and 
ended  with  Eomanism,  while  other  Western  countries  passed 
through  the  reverse  order.  Lying  outside  of  the  bounds  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  never  invaded  by  Eoman  legions,1  that  vir- 
gin island  was  Christianized  without  bloodshed  and  independently 
of  Rome  and  of  the  canons  of  the  oecumenical  synods.  The  early 
Irish  church  differed  from  the  Continental  churches  in  minor 
points  of  polity  and  worship,  and  yet  excelled  them  all  during 
the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  in  spiritual  purity  and  missionary 
zeal.  After  the  Norman  conquest,  it  became  closely  allied  to 
Rome.  In  titie  sixteenth  century  the  light  of  the  Reformation 

1  Agricola  thought  of  invading  Ireland,  and  holding  it  by  a  single  legion,  in 
oider  to  remove  from  Britain  the  dangerous  sight  of  freedom.  Tacitus,  Agrie^ 
c.24. 


44  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1049. 

did  not  penetrate  into  the  native  population;  but  Queen  Eliza* 
beth  and  the  Stuarts  set  up  by  force  a  Protestant  state-religion 
in  antagonism  to  the  prevailing  faith  of  the  people.  Hence,  by 
the  law  of  re-action,  the  Keltic  portion  of  Ireland  became  more 
intensely  Roman  Catholic,  being  filled  with  double  hatred  of 
England  on  the  ground  of  difference  of  race  and  religion.  This 
glaring  anomaly  of  a  Protestant  state  church  in  a  Roman  Catholic 
country  has  been  removed  at  last  after  three  centuries  of  oppres- 
sion and  misrule,  by  the  Irish  Church  Disestablishment  Act  in 
1869  under  the  ministry  of  Gladstone. 

The  early  history  of  Ireland  (Hibernia)  is  buried  in  obscurity. 
The  ancient  Hibernians  were  a  mixed  woe,  but  prevailingly 
Keltic.  They  were  ruled  by  petty  tyrants,  proud,  rapacious 
and  warlike,  who  kept  the  country  in  perpetual  strife.  They 
were  devoted  to  their  religion  of  Druidism.  Their  island,  even 
before  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  was  called  the  Sacred 
Island.  It  was  also  called  Scotia  or  Scotland  down  to  the  elev- 
enth century.1  The  Romans  made  no  attempt  at  subjugation,  as 
they  did  not  succeed  in  establishing  their  authority  iu  Caledonia. 

The  first  traces  of  Irish  Christianity  are  found  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  or  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century. 

As  Pelagius,  the  father  of  the  famous  heresy,  which  bears  his 
name,  was  a  Briton,  so  Qelestius,  his  chief  ally  and  champion, 
was  a  Hibernian;  but  we  do  not  know  whether  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian before  he  left  Ireland.  Mansuetus,  first  bishop  of  Toul, 
was  an  Irish  Scot  (A.  D.  o50).  Pope  Golestine,  in  431,  ordained 
and  sent  Palladius,  a  Roman  deacon,  and  probably  a  native 
Briton,  "to  the  Scots  believing  in  Christ/'  as  their  first  bishop,2 
This  notice  by  Prosper  of  France  implies  the  previous  existence 
of  Christianity  in  Ireland.  But  Palladius  was  so  discouraged 

1  Isidore  of  Seville  in  580  (Origmes  XIV.  6)  w»s  the  first  to  call  Ilibernia  by 
the  name  of  Scotia:  "/Sbo*ia  eadem  et  I&emw,  proximo,  Brifannfa  iwda" 

2  Prosper  Aquitan.  (A.  D.  455-463),  Chr<m.  ad  an.  431 :  "Ad  Scotos  in  Christum 
eredentes  ordinaius  a  Papa  Ocdestino  Pattadius  primus  JEpiscopm  mitittur"  Comp. 
Vita  S.  PaUadii  in  the  .Book  of  Armagh,  and  the  notes  by  Haddan  and  Stubhs, 
Vol.  IL,  Part  IL,  pp.  290,  291. 


2  14.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  IRELAND.  45 

that  lie  soon  abandoned  the  field,  with  his  assistants,  for  North 
Britain,  where  he  died  among  the  Piets.1  For  nearly  two  cen- 
turies after  this  date,  we  have  no  authentic  record  of  papal  inter- 
course with  Ireland ;  and  yet  during  that  period  it  took  its  place 
among  the  Christian  countries.  It  was  converted  by  two  humble 
individuals,  who  probably  never  saw  Rome,  St.  Patrick,  once  a 
slave,  and  St.  Bridget,  the  daughter  of  a  slave-mother.2  The 
Koman  tradition  that  St.  Patrick  was  sent  by  Pope  Cselestine  is 
too  late  to  have  any  claim  upon  our  acceptance,  and  is  set  aside 
by  the  entire  silence  of  St.  Patrick  himself  in  his  genuine  works. 
It  arose  from  confounding  Patrick  with  Palladius.  The  Roman 
mission  of  Palladius  failed;  the  independent  mission  of  Patrick 
succeeded.  He  is  the  true  Apostle  of  Ireland,  and  has  impressed 
his  memory  in  indelible  characters  upon  the  Irish  race  at  home 
and  abroad. 

ST.  PATRICK  or  Patricius  (died  March  17, 465  or  493)  was  the 
son  of  a  deacon,  and  grandson  of  a  priest,  as  he  confesses  him- 
self without  an  intimation  of  the  unkwfulness  of  clerical  mar- 
riages.5 He  was  in  his  youth  carried  captive  into  Ireland,  with 
many  others,  and  served  his  master  six  years  as  a  shepherd. 
While  tending  his  flock  in  the  lonesome  fields,  the  teachings  of 
his  childhood  awakened  to  new  life  in  his  heart  without  any 
particular  external  agency.  He  escaped  to  France  or  Britain, 
was  again  enslaved  for  a  short  period,  and  had  a  remarkable 

1  He  is  said  to  have  left  in  Ireland,  when  he  withdrew,  some  relics  of  Sk 
Peter  and  Paul,  and  a  copy  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  the  Pope 
had  given  him,  together  with  the  tablets  on  which  he  himself  used  to  write. 
Haddan  &  Stubbs,  p.  291. 

3  Hence  Montalembert  says  (II.  393):  "The  Christian  faith  dawned  upon 
Ireland  by  means  of  two  slaves.'7  The  slave-trade  between  Ireland  and  Eng- 
land flourished  for  many  centuries. 

8  This  fact  is  usually  omitted  by  Boman  Catholic  writers.  Butler  says  sim- 
ply: "His  father  was  of  a  good  &mily."  Even  Montalembert  conceals  it  by 
calling  "the  Gallo-Eoman  (?)  Patrick,  son  of  a  relative  of  the  great  St.  Mar- 
tin of  Tours"  (II.  890).  He  also  repeats,  without  a  shadow  of  proof,  the  legend 
that  St  Patrick  wag  consecrated  and  commissioned  by  Pope  St  Celestine  (p. 
391),  though  he  admits  that  "legend  and  history  have  vied  in  taking  possession 
of  the  life  of  St  Patrick" 


46  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

dream,  which  decided  his  calling.  He  saw  a  man,  Vietoricius, 
who  handed  him  innumerable  letters  from  Ireland,  begging  him 
to  come  over  and  help  them.  He  obeyed  the  divine  monition, 
and  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  conversion  of  Ire- 
land (from  A.D.  440  to  493).1 

"I  am,"  he  says,  "greatly  a  debtor  to  God,  who  has  bestowed 
his  grace  so  largely  upon  me,  that  multitudes  were  born  again 
to  God  through  me.  The  Irish,  who  never  had  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  worshipped  only  idols  and  unclean  things,  have 
lately  become  the  people  of  the  Lord,  and  arc  called  sons  of 
God."  He  speaks  of  having  baptized  many  thousands  of  men. 
Armagh  seems  to  have  been  for  some  time  the  centre  of  his  mis- 
sionary operations,  and  is  to  this  day  the  seat  of  the  primacy  of 
Ireland,  both  Eoman  Catholic  and  Protestant  He  died  in 
peace,  and  was  buried  in  Downpatrick  (or  Gabhul),  where  he 
began  his  mission,  gained  his  first  converts  and  spent  his  de- 
clining years.2 

His  Roman  Catholic  biographers  have  surrounded  his  life 
with  marvelous  achievements,  while  some  modern  Protestant 
hypercritics  have  questioned  even  his  existence,  as  there  IB  no 
certain  mention  of  his  name  before  634;  unless  it  be  "the 
Hymn  of  St.  Sechnall  (JSeeundinm)  in  praise  of  St.  Patrick," 
which  is  assigned  to  448.  But  if  we  accept  his  own  writingH, 
"there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt"  (wo  say  with  a  Pro#- 
byterian  historian  of  Ireland)  "that  he  preached  the  gospel  in 
Hibernia  in  the  fifth  century;  that  he  was  a  most  zealous  and 
efficient  evangelist,  and  that  he  is  eminently  entitled  to  the 
honorable  designation  of.  the  Apostte  of  Ireland"  s 

1  The  dates  are  merely  conjectural.  Haddan  <fc  Stubbs  (p,  295)  select  A.D. 
440  for  St.  Patrick's  mission  (as  did  Tillemont  &  Todd),  and  493  as  the  year  of 
his  death.  According  to  other  accounts,  his  mission  began  much  earlier,  and 
lasted  sixty  years.  The  alleged  date  of  the  foundation  of  Armagh  is  A.  D.  445. 

2  Afterwards  Armagh  disputed  the  claims  of  Downpatrick.  See  Killen  L  71-73. 

8  Killen,  Vol.  1. 12.  Patrick  describes  himself  as  "  JOftenone  <m#titutwt  epfowpus" 
Afterwards  he  was  called  "  Episcopus  Seotorum,"  then  "  ArcMapostolw  Scotorum," 
then  "  Abbat  of  all  Ireland,"  and  "Archbishop,  First  Primate,  and  Chief  Apot*- 
tle  of  Ireland/'  See  Haddaa  &  Stubbs,  p.  295. 


2  14.  THE  OONVEESION  OF  IKELAND.  47 

The  Christianity  of  Patrick  was  substantially  that  of  Gaul 
and  old  Britain,  i.  e.  Catholic,  orthodox,  monastic,  ascetic,  but 
independent  of  the  Pope,  and  differing  from  Rome  in  the  age  of 
Gregory  I.  in  minor  matters  of  polity  and  ritual.  In  his  Con- 
fession he  never  mentions  Rome  or  the  Pope;  he  never  appeals 
to  tradition,  and  seems  to  recognize  the  Scriptures  (including  the 
Apocrypha)  as  the  only  authority  in  matters  of  faith.  He  quotes 
from  the  canonical  Scriptures  twenty-five  times;  three  times 
from  the  Apocrypha.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  failure 
and  withdrawal  of  Palladius  was  due  to  Patrick,  who  had 
already  monopolized  this  mission-field;  but,  according  to  the 
more  probable  chronology,  the  mission  of  Patrick  began  about 
nine  years  after  that  of  Palladius.  From  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  the  two  persons  were  confounded,  and  a  part 
of  the  history  of  Palladius,  especially  his  connection  with  Pope 
Cselestinc,  was  transferred  to  Patrick.1 

With  St.  Patrick  there  is  inseparably  connected  the  most 
renowned  female  saint  of  Ireland,  ST.  BBIDGET  (or  Brigid,  Bri- 
gida,  Bride),  who  prepared  his  winding  sheet  and  survived  him 
many  years.  She  died  Feb.  1, 523  (or  525).  She  is  "the  Mary 
of  Ireland,"  and  gave  her  name  to  innumerable  Irish  daughters, 
churches,  and  convents.  She  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  her 
name-sake,  the  widow-saint  of  Sweden.  Her  life  is  surrounded 
even  by  a  still  thicker  cloud  of  legendary  fiction  than  that  of  St. 
Patrick,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  the  facts  from  the  ac- 
cretions of  a  credulous  posterity.  She  was  an  illegitimate  child  of 
a  chieftain  or  bard,  and  a  slave-mother,  received  holy  orders,  be- 
came deformed  in  answer  to  her  own  prayer,  founded  the  famous 
nunnery  of  Kildare  (i.  e.  the  Church  of  the  Oak),2  foretold  the 
birth  of  Columba,  and  performed  all  sorts  of  signs  and  wonders, 

1  Haddan  <fc  Stubbs,  p.  294,  note:  "The  language  of  the  Hymns  of  S.  Seehnalf 
and  of  S.  Fiacc,  and  of  S.  Patrick's  own  Confessio,  and  the  silence  of  Prosper, 
besides  chronological  difficulties,  disprove,  upon  purely  historical  grounds,  the 
supposed  mission  from  Borne  of  S.  Patrick  himself;  which  first  appears  in  the 
Scholia  on  &  Place's  Hymn." 

*  The  probable  date  of  foundation  is  A.  D.  480.    Haddan  &  Stubbs,  p.  295. 


48  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

Upon  her  tomb  in  Kildare  arose  the  inextinguishable  flame 
called  "the  Light  of  St.  Bridget,"  which  her  nuns  (like  the 
Vestal  Virgins  of  Borne)  kept 

"Through  long  ages  of  darkness  and  storm"  (Moore). 

Six  lives  of  her  were  published  by  Colgan  in  his  Trias  Thau- 
ma&wrgus,  and  five  by  the  Bollandists  in  the  Ada  Sanctorum. 

OHMcal  Note  on  St.  Patrick. 

We  have  only  one  or  two  genuine  documents  from  Patrick,  both  writ- 
ten in  semi-barbarous  (early  Irish)  Latin,  but  breathing  an  humble,  devout 
and  fervent  missionary  spirit  without  anything  specifically  Eoman,  viz. 
liis  autobiographical  Confession  (in  25  chapters),  written  shortly  before 
his  death  (493?),  and  his  Letter  of  remonstrance  to  Ooroticus  (or  Ccrcdig), 
a  British  chieftain  (nominally  Christian),  probably  of  Cercdigion  or 
Cardigan,  who  had  made  a  raid  into  Ireland,  and  sold  sovernl  of 
Patrick's  converts  into  slavery  (10  chapters).  The  Confession,  as  con- 
tained in  the  "Book  of  Armagh,"  is  alleged  to  have  been  transcribed 
before  A.  D.  807  from  Patrick's  original  autograph,  which  was  then 
partly  illegible.  There  are  four  other  MSS.  of  the  eleventh  century, 
with  sundry  additions  towards  the  close,  which  seem  to  be  independent 
copies  of  the  same  original.  See  Haddan  &  Stubbs,  note  on  p.  296. 
The  Epistle  to  Coroticus  is  much  shorter,  and  not  so  generally  accepted. 
Both  documents  were  first  printed  in  1656,  then  in  1668  in  the  Acta 
Sanctorum,  also  in  Migne's  Pabrologia,  (Vol.  53),  in  Miss  Cusack's  Life 
of  St.  Patrick,  in  the  work  of  Ebrard  (I  c.  482  sqq.),  and  in  Haddan 
&  Stubbs,  Councils  (Vol.  IL,  P.  IL,  296  sqq.). 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  about  Patrick's  nationality,  whether  ho 
was  of  Scotch,  or  British,  or  French  extraction.  He  begins  his  Confession : 
"I,  Patrick,  a  sinner,  the  rudest  and  the  least  of  all  the  feithful,  and  the 
most  contemptible  with  the  multitude  (Ego  Patricius,  peccator,  rusficwi- 
rnus  et  minimus  omnium  fidelium  et  cmtempt&ilimmus  apud  plurimo*,  or, 
according  to  another  reading,  wntemptibilis  sum  apud  plurimos),  had  for 
my  fether  Calpornus  (or  Calphurnius),  a  deacon  (diaconvm,  or  diaamem), 
-foe  son  of  Potitus  (at.  Photius),  a  presbyter  (filium  quondam  Pbtiti,  pres- 
fyteri),  who  lived  in  the  village  of  Bannavem  (or  Banaven)  of  Tabernia; 
for  he  had  a  cottage  in  the  neighborhood  where  I  was  captured.  I  was 
then  about  sixteen  years  old;  but  I  was  ignorant  of  the  true  God,  and 
-was  led  away  into  captivity  to  Hibernia."  Bannavem  of  Tabernia  is 
perhaps  Banavie  in  Lochaber  in  Scotland  (jSlcLauchlan) ;  other*  fix  the 


2  14.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  IRELAND.  49 

place  of  his  birth  in  Kilpatriek  (L  e.  the  cell  or  church  of  Patrick),  near 
Dunbarton  on  the  Clyde  (Ussher,  Butler,  Maclear) ;  others,  somewhere 
in  Britain,  and  thus  explain  his  epithet  "Brito"  or  "Briton"  (Joceline 
and  Skene);  still  others  seek  it  hi  Armoric  Gaul,  in  Boulogne  (from 
Bononia),  and  derive  Brito  from  Brittany  (Lanigan,  Moore,  Killen,  De 
Vinne). 

He  does  not  state  the  instrumentality  of  his  conversion.  Being 
the  son  of  a  clergyman,  he  must  have  received  some  Christian  instruc- 
tion; but  he  neglected  it  till  he  was  made  to  feel  the  power  of  reli- 
gion in  communion  with  God  while  in  slavery.  "After  I  arrived  in 
Ireland,"  he  says  (ch.  6),  "every  day  I  fed  cattle,  and  frequently  during 
the  day  I  prayed;  more  and  more  the  love  and  fear  of  God  burned,  and 
my  faith  and  my  spirit  were  strengthened,  so  that  in  one  day  I  said  as 
many  as  a  hundred  prayers,  and  nearly  as  many  in  the  night."  He  rep- 
resents his  call  and  commission  as  coming  directly  from  God  through  a 
vision,  and  alludes  to  no  intervening  ecclesiastical  authority  or  episcopal 
consecration.  In  one  of  the  oldest  Irish  MSS.,  the  Book  of  Burrow,  he 
is  styled  a  presbyter.  In  the  Epistle  to  Coroticus,  he  appears  more 
churchly  and  invested  with  episcopal  power  and  jurisdiction.  It  begins : 
"Paforiwus,  peccator  indoctus,  Htberwne  (or  JSyberione)  constitirius  episcopus, 
certissime  rear,  a  Deo  accepi  id  quod  sum;  inter  barbaras  utique  gentes  pro- 
selytus  etprofuga,  ob  amorem  Dei."  (So  according  to  the  text  of  Haddan 
&  Stubbs,  p.  314;  somewhat  different  in  Migne,  Patrol  LITE.  814;  and 
in  Ebrard,  p.  505.)  But  the  letter  does  not  state  where  or  by  whom  he 
was  consecrated. 

The  "Book  of  Armagh "  contains  also  an  Irish  hymn  (the  oldest  monu- 
ment of  the  Irish  Keltic  language),  called  £  Patridi  Canticum  Scotticum, 
which  Patrick  is  said  to  have  written  when  he  was  about  to  convert  the 
chief  monarch  of  the  island  (Laoghaire  or  Loegaire).1  The  hymn  is  a 
prayer  for  the  special  aid  of  Almighty  God  for  so  important  a  work;  it 
contains  the  principal  doctrines  of  orthodox  Christianity,  with  a  dread 
of  magical  influences  of  aged  women  and  blacksmiths,  such  as  still 
prevails  in  some  parts  of  Ireland,  but  without  an  invocation  of  Mary 
and  the  saints,  such  as  we  might  expect  from  the  Patrick  of  tradition 
and  in  a  composition  intended  as  a  breast-plate  or  corselet  against  spirit- 
ual foes.  The  following  is  the  principal  portion: 

1  The  Irish  was  first  published  by  Dr.  Petrie,  and  translated  by  Dr.  Todd. 
Haddan  &  Stubbs  (320-323)  give  the  Irish  and  English  in  parallel  columns. 
Some  parts  of  this  hymn  are  said  to  be  stall  remembered  by  the  Irish  peasantry 
and  repeated  at  bed-time  as  a  protection  from  evil,  or  "as  a  religious  armor  to 
protect  body  and  soul  against  demons  and  men  and  vices." 


50  FOUETH  PERIOD.   A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

"5.  I  bind  to  myself  to-day, — 
The  Power  of  God  to  guide  me, 
The  Might  of  God  to  uphold  me, 
The  Wisdom  of  God  to  teach  me, 
The  Eye  of  God  to  watch  over  me, 
The  Ear  of  God  to  hear  me, 
The  Word  of  God  to  give  me  speech, 
The  Hand  of  God  to  protect  me, 
The  Way  of  God  to  go  before  me, 
The  Shield  of  God  to  shelter  me, 
The  Host  of  God  to  defend  me, 

Against  the  snares  of  demons, 

Against  the  temptations  of  vices, 

Against  the  lusts  of  nature, 

Against  every  man  who  meditates  injury  to  me, 
Whether  far  or  near, 
With  few  or  with  many. 

6.  I  have  set  around  me  all  these  powers, 


Directed  against  my  body  and  my  soul, 
Against  the  incantations  of  false  prophets, 


Against  the  false  laws  of  heresy, 

Against  the  deceits  of  idolatry, 

Against  the  spells  of  women,  and  smiths,  and  draidg, 

Against  all  knowledge  which  blinds  the  soul  of  man. 

7.  Christ  protect  me  to-day 
Against  poison,  against  burning, 
Against  drowning,  against  wound, 
That  I  may  receive  abundant  reward. 

8.  Christ  with  me,  Christ  before  me, 
Christ  behind  me,  Christ  within  me, 
Christ  beneath  me,  Christ  above  me, 
Christ  at  my  right,  Christ  at  my  left, 
Christ  in  the  fort  [i.  e.  at  home], 

Christ  in  the  chariot-seat  [travelling  by  land], 
Christ  in  the  poop  [travelling  by  water]. 

9.  Christ  in  the  heart  of  every  man  who  thinks  of  me, 
Christ  in  the  mouth  of  every  man  who  speaks  to  me^ 
Christ  in  every  eye  that  sees  me, 

Christ  in  every  ear  that  hears  me. 


1 14.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  IRELAND.  51 

10.  I  bind  to  myself  to-day 

The  strong  power  of  an  invocation  of  the  Trinity, 
The  faith  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity, 
The  Creator  of  [the  elements]. 

11.  Salvation  is  of  the  Lord, 
Salvation  is  of  the  Lord, 
Salvation  is  of  Christ; 

May  thy  salvation,  0  Lord,  be  ever  with  us.'* 

The  fourth  and  last  document  which  has  been  claimed  as  authentic 
and  contemporary,  is  a  Latin  "  Hymn  in  praise  of  St.  Patrick "  (Hymnus 
SancH  Patricii,  JEpfoeopi  jScotorum)  by  St.  Sechnall  (Secundinus)  which 
begins  thus: 

"Audite,  omnes  amantes  Deum,  sancta  merifa 
Vvri  in  Christo  beati  Patricii  Hfciscopi: 
Quomodo  bonum  ob  acfum  simulaiur  angelis, 


The  poem  is  given  in  fuU  by  Haddan  &  Stubbs,  324-327,  and  assigned 
to  "before  A.  D.  448  ( ? ),"  in  which  year  Sechnall  died.  But  how  could 
he  anticipate  the  work  of  Patrick,  when  his  mission,  according  to  the 
same  writers,  began  only  eight  years  earlier  (440),  and  lasted  till  493? 
The  hymn  is  first  mentioned  by  Tyrechanus  in  the  "Book  of  Armagh." 

The  next  oldest  document  is  the  Irish  hymn  of  St.  Fiacc  on  St.  Patrick, 
which  is  assigned  to  the  latter  part  of  the  sixth  century,  (I  c.  356-361). 
The  Senchw  Mor  is  attributed  to  the  age  of  St.  Patrick;  but  it  is  a  code 
of  Irish  laws,  derived  from  Pagan  times,  and  gradually  modified  by 
Christian  ecclesiastics  in  favor  of  the  church.  The  Canons  attributed  to 
St.  Patrick  are  of  later  date  (Haddan  &  Stubbs,  328  sqq.). 

It  is  strange  that  St.  Patrick  is  not  mentioned  by  Bede  in  his  Church 
History,  although  he  often  refers  to  Hibernia  and  its  church,  and  is  barely 
named  as  a  presbyter  in  his  Martyrology.  He  is  also  ignored  by  Columba 
and  by  the  Roman  Catholic  writers,  until  his  mediaeval  biographers  from 
the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  century  Romanized  him,  appealing  not  to  his 
genuine  Confession,  but  to  spurious  documents  and  vague  traditions. 
He  is  said  to  have  converted  all  the  Irish  chieftains  and  bards,  even 
Ossian,  the  blind  Homer  of  Scotland,  who  sang  to  him  his  long  epic  of 
Keltic  heroes  and  battles.  He  founded  365  or,  according  to  others,  700 
churches,  and  consecrated  as  many  bishops,  and  3,000  priests  (when  the 
whole  island  had  probably  not  more  than  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants ;  for  even  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  it  did  not  exceed  600,000).' 

1  See  Kfflen,  1 76,  note.  Montalembert  says,  HI.  118,  note:  "Irish  narra- 
tives know  scarcely  any  numerals  but  those  of  three  hundred  and  three  thousand. 


52  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

He  changed  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  healed  the  blind,  raised  nine  per- 
sons from  death  to  life,  and  expelled  all  the  snakes  and  frogs  from  Ire- 
land.1 His  memory  is  celebrated  March  17,  and  is  a  day  of  great  public 
processions  with  the  Irish  Catholics  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  His  death 
is  variously  put  in  the  year  455  (Tillemont),  464  or  465  (Butler,  Killen), 
493  (Ussher,  Skene,  Forbes,  Haddan  &  Stubbs).  Forbes  (Kdlendars,  p. 
433)  and  Skene  (Keltic  Scotland,  IE.  427  sqq.)  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  legend  of  St.  Patrick  in  its  present  shape  is  not  older  than  the  ninth 
century,  and  dissolves  into  three  personages:  SEN-PATBICK,  whose  day 
in  the  Kalendar  is  the  24th  of  August;  PALLADIUS,  "qui  est  Patridus," 
to  whom  the  mission  in  431  properly  belongs,  and  PATRICIITS,  whose 
day  is  the  17th  of  March,  and  who  died  in  493.  "  From  the  acts  of  these 
three  saints,  the  subsequent  legend  of  the  great  Apostle  of  Ireland  was 
compiled,  and  an  arbitrary  chronology  applied  to  it." 

§  15.  The  Irish  Church  after  St.  Patrick 

THE  MISSIONARY  PERIOD. 

The  labors  of  St.  Patrick  were  carried  on  by  his  pupils  and 
by  many  British  priests  and  monks  who  were  driven  from  Eng- 
land by  the  Anglo-Saxon  invasion  in  the  5th  and  6th  centuries.* 
There  was  an  intimate  intercourse  between  Ireland  and  Wales, 
where  British  Christianity  sought  refuge,  and  between  Ireland 
and  Scotland,  where  the  seed  of  Christianity  had  been  planted 
by  Ninian  and  Kentigern.  In  less  than  a  century  after  St. 
Patrick's  death  Ireland  was  covered  with  churches  and  convents 
for  men  and  women.  The  monastic  institutions  were  training 
schools  of  clergymen  and  missionaries,  and  workshops  for  trans- 
scribing  sacred  books.  Prominent  among  these  are  the  monas- 

1 A  witty  Irishman,  who  rowed  me  (in  1875)  over  Lake  Killarney,  told  me 
that  St.  Patrick  put  the  last  snake  into  an  iron  box,  and  sunk  it  to  the  bottom 
of  the  lake,  although  he  had  solemnly  promised  to  let  the  creature  out.  t 
asked  him  whether  it  was  not  a  sin  to  cheat  a  snake?  "Not  at  all/'  was  his 
quick  reply,  "he  only  paid  him  in  the  same  coin;  for  the  first  snake  cheated 
the  whole  world."  The  same  guide  told  me  that  Cromwell  killed  all  the  good 
people  in  Ireland,  and  let  the  had  ones  lire;  and  when  I  objected  that  he  must 
have  made  an  exception  with  his  ancestors,  he  politely  replied:  "No,  my 


9  Petrie  (Round  Towers,  p.  137,  quoted  by  Killen  1. 26)  speaks  of  crowds  of 
foreign  ecclesiastics—Eoman,  Egyptian,  French,  British,  Saxon — who  flocked 
into  Ireland  as  a  place  of  refuge  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries. 


g  15.  THE  IRISH  CHUECH  AFTER  ST.  PATRICK.          53 

teries  of  Armagh,  Banchor  or  Bangor  (558),  Clonard  (500), 
Cloninacnois  (528),  Deny  (555),  Glendolough  (618). 

During  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  Ireland  excelled  all 
other  countries  in  Christian  piety,  and  acquired  the  name  of 
"the  Island  of  Saints."  We  must  understand  this  in  a  compa- 
rative sense,  and  remember  that  at  that  time  England  was  just 
beginning  to  emerge  from  Anglo-Saxon  heathenism,  Germany 
was  nearly  all  heathen,  and  the  French  kings — the  eldest  sons 
of  the  Church — were  "monsters  of  iniquity."  Ireland  itself 
was  distracted  by  civil  wars  between  the  petty  kings  and  chief- 
tains; and  the  monks  and  clergy,  even  the  women,  marched  to 
the  conflict.  Adamnaa  with  difficulty  secured  a  law  exempting 
women  from  warfare,  and  it  was  not  till  the  ninth  century  that 
the  clergy  in  Ireland  were  exempted  from  "expeditions  and 
hostings  "  (battles).  The  slave-trade  was  in  full  vigor  between 
Ireland  and  England  in  the  tenth  century,  with  the  port  of 
Bristol  for  its  centre.  The  Irish  piety  was  largely  based  on 
childish  superstition.  But  the  missionary  zeal  of  that  country 
is  nevertheless  most  praiseworthy.  Ireland  dreamed  the  dream 
of  converting  heathen  Europe.  Its  apostles  went  forth  to  Scot- 
land, North  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  North 
Italy.  "They  covered  the  land  and  seas  of  the  West.  Unwea- 
ried navigators,  they  landed  on  the  most  desert  islands;  they 
overflowed  the  Continent  with  their  successive  immigrations. 
They  saw  in  incessant  visions  a  world  known  and,  unknown  to 
be  conquered  for  Christ.  The  poem  of  the  Pilgnmaffe  of  St. 
Jirandan,  that  monkish  Odyssey  so  celebrated  in  the  middle 
ages,  that  popular  prelude  of  the  Dimna  Commedia,  shows  us 
the  Irish  monks  in  close  contact  with  all  the  dreams  and  won* 
ders  of  the  Keltic  ideal111 

The  missionaries  left  Ireland  usually  in  companies  of  twelve, 
with  a  thirteenth  as  their  leader.  This  duodecimal  economy 
was  to  represent  Christ  and  the  twelve  apostles.  The  following 
are  the  most  prominent  of  these  missionary  bands  :f 

1  Montalembert,  H.  397.          •  See  Beeves,  &  CWwm&o,  Introd.,  p.  bod. 


64  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1019. 

St.  Columba,  with  twelve  brethren,  to  Hy  In  Scotland, 
A.D.  563. 

St.  Mohonna  (or  Macarius,  Mauricius),  sent  by  Columba,  with 
twelve  companions,  to  the  Picts. 

St.  Columbanus,  with  twelve  brethren,  whose  names  are  on 
record,  to  France  and  Germany,  A.D.  612. 

St.  Kilian,  with  twelve,  to  Franconia  and  Wiirzburg, 
A.D.  680. 

St.  Eloquius,  with  twelve,  to  Belgium,  A.D.  680. 

St.  Rudbert  or  Eupert,  with  twelve,  to  Bavaria,  A.  D.  700. 

St.  "Willibrord  (who  studied  twelve  years  in  Ireland),  with 
twelve,  to  Friesland,  A.D.  692. 

St.  Forannan,  with  twelve,  to  the  Belgian  frontier,  A.D.  970. 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  missionary  activity  of  the  Irish 
Church  is  confined  to  the  period  of  her  independence  of  the 
Church  of  Eome.  We  hear  no  more  of  it  after  the  Norman 
conquest. 

The  Irish  Church  during  this  missionary  period  of  the  sixth 
and  seventh  centuries  had  a  peculiar  character,  which  we  learn 
chiefly  from  two  documents  of  the  eighth  century,  namely,  the 
Catalogue  of  the  Saints  of  Ireland,1  and  the  Litany  of  Angus 
the  Culdee.1 

The  Catalogue  distinguishes  three  periods  and  three  orders  of 
saints:  secular,  monastic,  and  eremitical. 

The  saints  of  the  time  of  St.  Patrick  were  all  bishops  full  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  three  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  founders 
of  churches;  they  had  one  head,  Christ,  and  one  leader,  Patrick, 
observed  one  mass  and  one  tonsure  from  ear  to  ear,  and  kept 
Easter  on  the  fourteenth  moon  after  the  vernal  equinox;  they 
excluded  neither  laymen  nor  women;  because,  founded  on  the 
Bock  of  Christ,  they  feared  not  the  blast  of  temptation.  They 
sprung  from  the  Romans,  Franks,  Britons  and  Soots.  This 

1  Cbtologw  Sanctorum  Wbernuz,  first  published  by  Hasher  from  two  MSS, 
andin  Haddan&Stubbs,  292-294. 

*  Contained  in  the  Leabhar  Bros*  and  in  the  Book  of  Leinster. 


I  15.  THE  IEISH  CHURCH  AFTER  ST.  PATRICK.          55 

order  of  saints  continued  for  four  reigns,  from  about  A.  D.  440 
till  643. 

The  second  order,  likewise  of  four  reigns,  till  A.D.  599,  was 
of  Catholic  Presbyters,  three  hundred  in  number,  with  few 
bishops;  they  had  one  head,  Christ,  one  Easter,  one  tonsure,  as 
before;  but  different  masses  and  different  rules,  and  they  refused 
the  services  of  women,  separating  them  from  the  monasteries. 

The  third  order  of  saints  consisted  of  one  hundred  holy  pres- 
byters and  a  few  bishops,  living  in  desert  places  on  herbs  and 
water  and  the  alms  of  the  faithful ;  they  had  different  tonsures 
and  Easters,  some  celebrating  the  resurrection  on  the  14th, 
some  on  the  16th  moon;  they  continued  through  four  reigns 
till  665. 

The  first  period  may  be  called  episcopal,  though  in  a  rather 
non-episcopal  or  undiocesan  sense.  Angus,  in  his  Litany,  in- 
vokes "seven  times  fifty  [350]  holy  cleric  bishops,"  whom  "the 
saint  [Patrick]  ordained/'  and  "three  hundred  pure  presbyters, 
upon  whom  he  conferred  orders."  In  Nennius  the  number  of 
presbyters  is  increased  to  three  thousand,  and  in  the  tripartite 
Life  of  Patrick  to  five  thousand.  These  bishops,  even  if  we 
greatly  reduce  the  number  as  we  must,  had  no  higher  rank 
than  the  ancient  chorepiscopi  or  country-bishops  in  the  Eastern 
Church,  of  whom  there  were  once  in  Asia  Minor  alone  upwards 
of  four  hundred.  Angus  the  Culdee  gives  us  even  one  hundred 
and  fifty-three  groups  of  seven  bishops,  each  group  serving  in 
the  same  church.  Patrick,  regarding  himself  as  the  chief  bishop 
of  the  whole  Irish  people,  planted  a  church  wherever  he  made  a 
few  converts  and  could  obtain  a  grant  from  the  chief  of  a  dan, 
and  placed  a  bishop  ordained  by  himself  over  it  "It  was  a 
congregational  and  tribal  episcopacy,  united  by  a  federal  rather 
than  a  territorial  tie  under  regular  jurisdiction.  During  Patrick's 
life,  he  no  doubt  exercised  a  superintendence  over  the  whole; 
but  we  do  not  see  any  trace  of  the  metropolitan  jurisdiction  of 
the  church  of  Armagh  over  the  rest."  * 

18keneIL22. 


56  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.B.  590  TO  1049. 

The  second  period  was  monastic  and  missionary.  All  the 
presbyters  and  deacons  were  monks.  Monastic  life  was  conge- 
nial to  the  soil,  and  had  its  antecedents  in  the  brotherhoods  and 
sisterhoods  of  the  Druids.1  It  was  imported  into  Ireland  pro- 
bably from  France,  either  directly  through  Patrick,  or  from 
the  monastery  of  St.  Ninian  at  Galloway,  who  himself  derives  it 
from  St.  Martin  of  Tours.*  Prominent  among  these  presbyter- 
monks  are  the  twelve  apostles  of  Ireland  headed  by  St.  Columba, 
who  carried  Christianity  to  Scotland  in  563,  and  the  twelve 
companions  of  Columbanus,  who  departed  from  Ireland  to  the 
Continent  about  612.  The  most  famous  monastery  was  that  of 
Bennchar,  or  Bangor,  founded  A.  D.  558  by  Comgall  in  the 
county  of  Down,  on  the  south  side  of  Belfast  Lough.  Comgall 
had  four  thousand  monks  under  his  care.3  From  Bangor  pro- 
ceeded Columbanus  and  other  evangelists. 

By  a  primitive  Keltic  monastery  we  must  not  understand  an 
elaborate  stone  structure,  but  a  rude  village  of  wooden  huts  or 
bothies  (botha)  on  a  river,  with  a  church  (ecdais),  a  common 
eating-hall,  a  mill,  a  hospice,  the  whole  surrounded  by  a  wall 
of  earth  or  stone.  The  senior  monks  gave  themselves  entirely 
to  devotion  and  the  transcribing  of  the  Scriptures.  The  younger 
were  occupied  in  the  field  and  in  mechanical  labor,  or  the  train** 
ing  of  the  rising  generation.  These  monastic  communities 
formed  a  federal  union,  with  Christ  as  their  invisible  head. 
They  were  training  schools  of  the  clergy.  They  attracted  con- 
verts from  the  surrounding  heathen  population,  and  offered 
them  a  refuge  from  danger  and  violence.  They  were  resorted 

1  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (XV.  9)  describes  the  Druids  as  *e  bound  together 
in  brotherhoods  and  corporations,  according  to  the  precepts  of  Pythagoras." 
See  Killen,  I.  29. 

9  See  next  section.  St.  Patrick  also  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  St.  Martin's 
disciples ;  but  St.  Martin  lived  nearly  one  hundred  years  earlier. 

8  Angus  the  Culdee,  in  his  Litany,  invokes  "forty  thousand  monks,  with  the 
blessing  of  God,  under  the  rule  of  Comgall  of  Bangor."  But  this  is  no  doubt  a 
slip  of  the  pen  for  "four  thousand."  Skene  II.  56.  Bangor  on  the  north- 
eastern coast  of  Ireland  must  not  be  confounded  with  Bangor  on  the  western 
coast  of  Wales. 


J  15.  THE  IRISH  CHUECH  AFTER  ST.  PATRICK.          57 

to  by  English  noblemen,  who,  according  to  Bede,  were  hospita- 
bly received,  furnished  with  books,  and  instructed.  Some  Irish 
clergymen  could  read  the  Greek  Testament  at  a  time  when 
Pope  Gregory  L  was  ignorant  of  Greek.  There  are  traces  of 
an  original  Latin  version  of  the  Scriptures  differing  from  the 
Itak  and  Vulgate,  especially  in  Patrick's  writings.1  But  "there 
is  no  trace  anywhere  of  any  Keltic  version  of  the  Bible  or  any 
part  of  it  St.  Chrysostom's  words  have  been  misunderstood  to 
support  such  a  supposition,  but  without  ground."2  If  there  had 
been  such  a  translation,  it  would  have  been  of  little  use,  as  the 
people  could  not  read  it,  and  depended  for  their  scanty  know- 
ledge of  the  word  of  God  on  the  public  lessons  in  the  church. 

The  "Book  of  Armagh/'  compiled  by  Ferdomnach,  a  scribe 
or  learned  monk  of  Armagh,  in  807,  gives  us  some  idea  of  the 
literary  state  of  the  Irish  Church  at  that  time.8  It  contains  the 
oldest  extant  memoirs  of  St.  Patrick,  the  Confession  of  St.  Pat- 
rick, the  Preface  of  Jerome  to  the  New  Testament,  the  Gospels, 
Epistles,  Apocalypse  and  Acts,  with  some  prefaces  chiefly  taken 
from  the  works  of  Pelagius,  and  the  Life  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours 
by  Sulpicius  Severus,  with  a  short  litany  on  behalf  of  the  writer. 

In  the  ninth  century  John  Scotus  Erigena,  who  died  in  France, 
874,  startled  the  Church  with  his  rare,  but  eccentric,  genius  and 
pantheistic  speculations.  He  had  that  power  of  quick  repartee 
for  which  Irishmen  are  distinguished  to  this  day.  When  asked 
by  Charles  the  Bald  at  the  dinner-table,  what  was  the  difference 
between  a  Scot  and  a  Sot  (quid  disfat  inter  Scottum  et  Sotiwrnf), 
Joh>*»  replied :  "Nothing  at  all  but  the  table,  please  your  Majesty." 

1  Biddan  &  Stubbs,  Vol.  I,  170-198,  give  a  collection  of  Latin  Scripture 


dins*  St.  Patrick,  Gildas,  Golumbanus,  Adamnanus,  NenniTis,  Asser,  e£c.),  and 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Vulgate,  though  known  to  Fastidius  in  Britain 
about  A.D.  420,  was  probably  unknown  to  St.  Patrick,  wilting  half  a  century 
later  in  Iceland,  but  that  from  the  seventh  century  on,  the  Vulgate  gradually 
superseded  the  Irish  Latin  version  formerly  in  use. 

*  Haddan  A  Stubbe,  L  192;  comp.  p.  10.  Ebrard  and  other  writers  state  the 
contrary,  but  without  proof! 

9  First  published  in  the  Swords  Parish  JfoposMie,  1861. 


58  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 


§  16.  Subjection  of  Ireland  to  English  and  Roman  Hule. 

The  success  of  the  Eoman  mission  of  Augustin  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons  encouraged  attempts  to  bring  the  Irish  Church 
under  the  papal  jurisdiction  and  to  force  upon  it  the  ritual 
observances  of  Rome.  England  owes  a  good  deal  of  her  Chris- 
tianity to  independent  Irish  and  Scotch  missionaries  from  Ban- 
gor  and  lona;  but  Ireland  (as  well  as  Germany)  owes  her 
Romanism,  in  great  measure,  to  England.  Pope  Honorius  (who 
was  afterwards  condemned  by  the  sixth  oecumenical  council  for 
holding  the  Monothelite  heresy)  addressed  to  the  Irish  clergy  in 
629  an  exhortation — not,  however,  in  the  tone  of  authoritative 
dictation,  but  of  superior  wisdom  and  experience — to  conform 
to  the  Roman  mode  of  keeping  Easter.  This  is  the  first  known 
papal  encyclical  addressed  to  that  country.  A  Synod  was  held 
at  Magh-Lene,  and  a  deputation  sent  to  the  Pope  (and  the  three 
Eastern  patriarchs)  to  ascertain  the  foreign  usages  on  Easter,  The 
deputation  was  treated  with  distinguished  consideration  in  Rome, 
and,  after  three  years'  absence,  reported  in  favor  of  the  Roman 
cycle,  which  indeed  rested  on  a  better  system  of  calculation. 
It  was  accordingly  adopted  in  the  South  of  Ireland,  under  the 
influence  of  the  learned  Irish  ecclesiastic  Cummian,  who  devoted 
a  whole  year  to  the  study  of  the  controversy.  A  few  years 
afterwards,  Thomian,  archbishop  and  abbot  of  Armagh  (from 
623  to  661),  and  the  best  Irish  scholar  of  his  age,  introduced, 
after  correspondence  with  the  Pope,  the  Roman  custom  in  the 
North,  and  thereby  promoted  his  authority  in  opposition  to  the 
power  of  the  abbot  of  lona,  which  extended  over  a  portion  of 
Ireland,  and  strongly  favored  the  old  custom.  But  at  last 
Abbot  Adamnan  likewise  yielded  to  the  Roman  practice  before 
his  death  (T04). 

The  Norman  conquest  under  William  L,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Pope,  united  the  Irish  Church  still  more  closely  to  Rome 
(1066).  Gregory  VII.,  in  an  encyclical  letter  to  the  king, 
clergy  and  laity  of  Ireland  (1084),  boldly  challenged  their  obe- 


2  16.  SUBJECTION  OF  LRELAOTX  59 

dience  to  the  Vicar  of  fiie  blessed  Peter,  and  invited  them  to 
appeal  to  him  in  all  matters  requiring  arbitration. 

The  archbishops  of  Canterbury,  Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  claimed 
and  exercised  a  sort  of  supervision  over  the  three  most  important 
sea-ports,  Dublin,  Waterford,  and  Limerick,  on  the  ground  that 
the  Norman  settlers  applied  to  them  for  bishops  and  priests. 
Their  influence  was  exerted  ia  favor  of  conformity  to  Kome. 
Clerical  celibacy  was  more  generally  introduced,  uniformity  in 
ritual  established,  and  the  large  number  of  bishoprics  reduced  to 
twenty-three  under  two  archbishops,  Armagh  for  the  North  and 
Cashel  for  the  South;  while  the  bishop  of  Dublin  was  permitted 
to  remain  under  the  care  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  This 
reorganization  of  the  polity  in  the  interest  of  the  aggrandizement 
of  the  hierarchy  was  effected  about  1112  at  the  synod  of  Kath- 
breasail,  which  was  attended  by  58  bishops,  317  priests,  a  large 
number  of  monks,  and  King  Murtogh  O'Brien  with  his  nobles.1 

At  last  Ireland  was  invaded  and  conquered  by  England  under 
Henry  II.,  wiiih  the  effectual  aid  of  Pope  Adrian  IV. — the 
only  Englishman  that  sat  on  the  papal  throne.  In  a  curious  bull 
of  1155,  he  justified  and  encouraged  the  intended  invasion  in 
the  interest  of  the  papacy,  and  sent  the  king  the  ring  of  investi- 
ture as  Lord  of  Ireland,  calling  upon  that  licentious  monarch  to 
"extirpate  the  nurseries  of  vice"  in  Ireland,  to  "enlarge  the 
borders  of  the  (Eoman)  Church,"  and  to  secure  to  St.  Peter 
from  each  house  "the  annual  pension  of  one  penny"  (equal  in 
value  in  the  twelfth  century  to  at  least  two  or  three  shillings  of 
our  present  currency).2  Henry  carried  out  his  design  in  1171, 

1  See  details  in  Lanigan  and  Killen  (ch.  vii.). 

3  This  papal-Irish,  bull  is  not  found  in  the  Huttarium  JZomanum,  the  editors  of 
which  were  ashamed  of  it,  and  is  denounced  by  some  Irish  Romanists  as  a  mon- 
strous and  outrageous  forgery,  hut  it  is  given  by  Matthew  Paris  (1155),  was  con- 
firmed by  Pope  Alexander  III.  in  a  letter  to  Henry  II.  (A.  D.  1172),  published 
in  Ireland  in  1175,  printed  in  Baronius,  Annalw  ad  A-D.  1159,  who  took  his 
copy  from  a  Codex  Vaticanus,  and  is  acknowledged  as  undoubtedly  genuine  by 
Dr.  Lanigan,  the  Boman  Catholic  historian  of  Ireland  (IV.  64),  and  other  au- 
thorities; comp.  Ellen  I.  211  sqq.  It  is  as  follows: 

"Adrian,  Bishop,  Servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to  his  dearest  son  in  Christ, 
ihe  illustrious  King  of  England,  greeting  and  apostolic  benediction. 


60  FOTJBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

and  with  a  strong  military  force  easily  subdued  the  whole  Irish 
nation,  weakened  and  distracted  by  civil  wars,  to  British  rule, 
which  has  been  maintained  ever  since.  A  Synod  at  Armagh 
regarded  the  subjugation  as  a  righteous  judgment  for  the  sins  of 
the  people,  and  especially  for  the  slave  trade.  The  bishops 

"Full  laudably  and  profitably  lias  your  magnificence  conceived  the  design  of 
propagating  your  glorious  renown  on  earth,  and  of  completing  your  reward  of 
eternal  happiness  in  heaven,  whilst  as  a  Catholic  prince  you  are  intent  on 
enlarging  the  borders  of  the  Church,  teaching  the  truth  of  the  Christian  faith 
to  the  ignorant  and  rude,  extirpating  the  nurseries  of  iniquity  from  the  field  of 
the  Lord,  and  for  the  more  convenient  execution  of  this  purpose,  requiring  the 
counsel  and  favor  of  the  Apostolic  See.  In  which  the  maturer  your  deliberation 
and  the  greater  the  discretion  of  your  procedure,  by  so  much  the  happier,  we 
trust,  will  be  your  progress,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Lord;  because  whatever 
has  its  origin  in  ardent  faith  and  in  love  of  religion  always  has  a  prosperous 
end  and  issue. 

"There  is  indeed  no  doubt  but  that  Ireland  and  all  the  islands  on  which 
Christ  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness  has  shone,  and  which  have  received  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Christian  faith,  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  St  Peter  and  of  the 
holy  Boman  Church,  as  your  Excellency  also  acknowledges.  And  therefore 
we  are  the  more  solicitous  to  propagate  a  faithful  plantation  among  them,  and 
a  seed  pleasing  to  the  Lord,  as  we  have  the  secret  conviction  of  conscience  that 
a  very  rigorous  account  must  be  rendered  of  them. 

"You  then,  most  dear  son  in  Christ,  have  signified  to  us  your  desire  to  enter 
into  the  island  of  Ireland  that  you  may  reduce  the  people  to  obedience  to  laws, 
and  extirpate  the  nurseries  of  vice,  and  that  yon  are  willing  to  pay  from  each 
house  a  yearly  pension  of  one  penny  to  St.  Peter,  and  that  you  will  preserve 
the  rights  of  the  churches  of  this  land  whole  and  inviolate.  We,  therefore, 
-with  that  grace  and  acceptance  suited  to  your  pious  and  laudable  design,  and 
favorably  assenting  to  your  petition,  hold  it  good  and  acceptable  that,  for  ex- 
tending the  borders  of  the  church,  restraining  the  progress  of  vice,  for  the  cor- 
rection of  manners,  the  planting  of  virtue,  and  the  increase  of  the  Christian 
religion,  you  enter  that  island,  and  execute  therein  whatever  shall  pertain  to 
the  honor  of  God  and  welfare  of  the  land;  and  that  the  people  of  that  land 
receive  you  honorably,  and  reverence  you  as  their  lord— the  rights  of  their 
churches  still  remaining  sacred  and  inviolate,  and  saving  to  St.  Peter  the  annual 
pension  of  one  penny  from  every  house. 

"If  then  you  are  resolved  to  carry  the  design  you  have  conceived  into  effect- 
ual execution,  study  to  train  that  nation  to  virtuous  manners,  and  labor  by 
yourself  and  others  whom  you  shall  judge  meet  for  this  work,  in  feith,  word, 
and  life,  that  the  church  may  be  there  adorned;  that  the  religion  of  the  Chris- 
tian feith  may  be  planted  and  grow  up,  and  that  all  things  pertaining  to  the 
honor  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  soula  be  so  ordered  that  you  may  be  entitled 
to  the  fulness  of  eternal  reward  in  God,  and  obtain  a  glorious  renown  on  earth 
throughout  all  ages." 


2  17.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  SCOTLAND.  61 

were  the  first  to  acknowledge  Henry,  hoping  to  derive  benefit 
from  a  foreign  regime,  which  freed  them  from  petty  tyrants  at 
home.  A  Synod  of  Cashel  in  1172,  among  other  regulations, 
ordered  that  all  offices  of  the  church  should  hereafter  in  all  parts 
of  Ireland  be  conformed  to  the  observances  of  the  Church  of 
England.  A  papal  legate  henceforward  was  constantly  residing 
in  Ireland.  Pope  Alexander  III.  was  extremely  gratified  with 
this  extension  of  his  dominion,  and  in  September,  1172,  in  the 
game  tone  of  sanctimonious  arrogance,  issued  a  brief  confirming 
the  bull  of  Adrian,  and  expressing  a  hope  that  "the  barbarous 
nation "  would  attain  under  the  government  of  Henry  "to  some 
decency  of  manners  ;w  he  also  wrote  three  epistles — one  to  Henry 
IL,  one  to  the  kings  and  nobles  of  Ireland,  and  one  to  its  hier- 
archy— enjoining  obedience  of  Ireland  to  England,  and  of  both 
to  the  see  of  St.  Peter.1 

§  17.  The  Cmverwm  of  Scotland.  St.  Ninian  and  St.  Kentiffern. 

See  the  works  of  SKENB  (the  second  vol.),  BEEVES,  MCLAUCHLAK, 

EBBABD,  Ctarm^GHAM,  mentioned  in  |  7. 
Also  DR.  REEVES:  TheCuldeesof  the  British  Islands  as  th&y  appear 

in  JB&tory,  1864 

DR.  Jos.  ROBERTSON:  Statute  Ecclesice  Scoticana,  1866,  2  vols. 
BISHOP  FORBES:  The  Calendars  of  Scottish  fiainto,  Edink,  1872;  Lives 

of  &  Ninian  and  S.  JZentigem,  compiled  in  the  l%th  century,  Edinb., 

1874 
HADDAN  &  STUBBS:  Councils  and  JEcclesiast.  Docum.,  Vol.  H,  Part  I. 

(Ox£,  1873),  pp.  103  sqq. 

Scotland  (Scotia)  before  the  tenth  century  was  comprised  in 
the  general  appellation  of  Britain  (Britannia),  as  distinct  from 
Ireland  (Hibernia).  It  was  known  to  the  Romans  as  Caledo- 
nia/ to  the  Kelts  as  Alban;  but  the  name  of  Scotia  was  exclu- 
sively appropriated  to  Ireland  till  the  tenth  century.  The  inde- 
pendent history  of  Scotland  begins  with  the  establishment  of 
the  Scottish  monarchy  in  the  ninth  century*  At  first  it  was  a 
purely  Keltic  kingdom;  but  in  the  course  of  time  the  Saxon 

1  EiUeii,  I.  226  sq, 

*  la  Gaelic,  Calyddom,  land  of  forests,  or,  according  to  others,  from 
i«.Haid  and  wild. 


62  FOUKTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

race  and  feudal  institutions  spread  over  the  country,  and  the 
Keltic  tribes  retreated  to  iihe  mountains  and  western  islands. 
The  names  of  Scot  and  Scotch  passed  over  to  the  English-speak- 
ing people  and  their  language;  while  the  Keltic  language,  for- 
merly known  as  Scotch,  became  known  as  Irish. 

The  Keltic  history  of  Scotland  is  full  of  fable,  and  a  battle- 
field of  Romanists  and  Protestants,  Episcopalians  and  Presby- 
terians, who  have  claimed  it  for  their  respective  systems  of  doc- 
trine and  church-polity.  It  must  be  disentangled  from  the 
sectarian  issues  of  the  Culdean  controversy. ,  The  historian  is 
neither  a  polemic  nor  an  apologist,  and  should  aim  at  nothing 
but  the  truth. 

Tertullian  says,  that  certain  places  in  Britain  which  the  Ro- 
mans could  not  conquer  were  made  subject  to  Christ.  It  is 
quite  likely  that  the  first  knowledge  of  Christianity  reached  the 
Scots  and  Picts  from  England ;  but  the  constant  wars  between 
them  and  the  Britons  and  the  decline  of  the  Roman  power  were 
unfavorable  to  any  mission  work. 

The  mission  of  Palladius  to  Scotland  by  Pope  Caelestius  is  as 
vague  and  uncertain  as  his  mission  to  Ireland  by  the  same  Pope, 
and  is  strongly  mixed  up  with  the  mission  of  Patrick.  An  Irish 
colony  from  the  North-Eastern  part  of  Ulster,  which  had  been 
Christianized  by  Patrick,  settled  in  Scotland  towards  the  close 
of  the  fifth  century,  and  continued  to  spread  along  the  coasts  of 
Argyle  and  as  far  as  the  islands  of  Mull  and  lona,  until  its 
progress  was  checked  by  the  Northern  Picts. 

The  first  distinct  fact  in  the  church  history  of  Scotland  is  the 
apostolate  of  ST.  NINIAJST  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century, 
during  the  reign  of  Theodosius  in  the  East.  We  have  little 
reliable  information  of  him.  The  son  of  a  British  king,  he 
devoted  himself  early  to  the  ministry  of  Christ.  He  spent  some 
time  in  Rome,  where  the  Pope  commissioned  him  to  the  aposto- 
late among  the  heathen  in  Caledonia,  and  in  Gaul  with  Bishop 
Martin  of  Tours,  who  deserves  special  praise  for  his  protest 
against  the  capital  punishment  of  heretics  in  the  case  of  the 


?  17.  THE  COKVEKSION  OF  SCOTLAND.  63 

Priscillianists.  He  began  the  evangelization  of  the  Southern 
Picts  in  the  Eastern  districts  of  modern  Scotland.  He  built 
a  white  stone  church  called  "Candida  Casa,"  at  Whittern  (Qu- 
Mthern,  Witerna)  in  Galloway,  on  the  South-Western  border 
of  Scotland  by  the  sea  side,  and  dedicated  it  to  the  memory  of 
St.  Martin,  who  had  died  in  that  year  (397).1  This  was  the 
beginning  of  "the  Great  Monastery "  ("Magnum  Monasterium") 
or  monastery  of  Rosnat,  which  exerted  a  civilizing  and  human- 
izing influence  on  the  surrounding  country,  and  annually  at- 
tracted pilgrims  from  England  and  Scotland  to  the  shrine  of 
St.  Ninian.  His  life  has  been  romanized  and  embellished  with 
legends.  He  made  a  new-born  infant  indicate  its  true  father, 
and  vindicate  the  innocence  of  a  presbyter  who  had  been  charged 
by  the  mother  with  the  crime  of  violation;  he  caused  leeks  and 
herbs  to  grow  in  the  garden  before  their  season;  he  subdued 
with  his  staff  the  winds  and  the  waves  of  the  sea;  and  even  his 
relics  cured  the  sick,  cleansed  the  lepers,  and  terrified  the  wicked, 
"by  all  which  things,"  says  Ailred,  his  biographer,  "the  faith 
of  believers  is  confirmed  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  Christ." 

ST.  KENTIGKEKN  (d.  Nov.  13,  603),  also  called  ST.  MUNGO 
(the  gracious  one),2  the  first  bishop  of  Glasgow,  labored  in  the 
sixth  century  for  the  conversion  of  the  people  in  Cumberland, 
Wales,  and  on  the  Clyde,  and  re-converted  the  Picts,  who  had 
apostatized  from  the  faith.  He  was  the  grandson  of  a  heathen 
king  in  Cumbria  or  Strathclyde,  the  son  of  a  Christian,  though 
unbaptized  mother.  He  founded  a  college  of  Culdees  or  secular 
monks,  and  several  churches.  He  wore  a  hair  shirt  and  garment 
of  goat-skin,  lived  on  bread  and  vegetables,  slept  on  a  rocky 
couch  and  a  stony  pillow,  like  Jacob,  rose  in  the  night  to  sing 
psalms,  recited  in  the  morning  lihe  whole  psalter  in  a  cold 
stream,  retired  to  desert  places  during  Lent,  living  on  roots, 
was  con-crucified  with  Christ  on  Good  Friday,  watched  before 

1  Oa  Whittern  and  the  Candida  Gasa,  see  Nicholson,  History  of  Qdkway,  I 
115;  Forbes,  S.  Ninian  and  &  Kentigern,  268,  and  Skene,  II.  46. 
1  In  Wekh,  Q^d^  means  ^  See  Skene,  II.  183. 


64  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

the  tomb,  and  spent  Easter  in  hilarity  and  joy.  He  converted 
more  by  his  silence  than  his  speech,  caused  a  wolf  and  a  stag  to 
drag  the  plough,  raised  grain  from  a  field  sown  with  sand,  kept 
the  rain  from  wetting  his  garments.,  and  performed  other  marvels 
which  prove  the  faith  or  superstition  of  his  biographers  in  the 
twelfth  century.  Jocelyn  relates  also,  that  Kentigern  went 
seven  times  to  Rome,  and  received  sundry  privileges  and  copies 
of  the  Bible  from  the  Pope.  There  is,  however,  no  trace  of 
such  visits  in  the  works  of  Gregory  I.,  who  was  more  interested 
in  the  Saxon  mission  than  the  Scotch.  Kentigern  first  estab- 
lished his  episcopal  chair  in  Holdelm  (now  Hoddam),  afterwards 
in  Glasghu  (Glasgow).  He  met  St.  Columba,  and  exchanged 
with  him  his  pastoral  stave.1  He  attained  to  the  age  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  years,  and  died  between  A.D.  601  and 
612  (probably  603).a  He  is  buried  in  the  crypt  of  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Mungo  in  Glasgow,  the  best  preserved  of  mediaeval  cathe- 
drals in  Scotland. 

ST.  CUTHBERT  (d.  March  20,  687),  whose  life  has  been  writ- 
ten by  Bede,  prior  of  the  famous  monastery  of  Mailros  (Mel- 
rose),  afterwards  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  and  last  a  hermit,  is 
another  legendary  saint  of  Scotland,  and  a  number  of  churches 
are  traced  to  him  or  bear  his  name.8 

§  18.  St.  Colwmba  and  the  Monastery  of  lona. 

JOHN  JAMIESON  (D.  D.) :  An  Historical  Account  of  ike  Ancient  Culdees  of 
lonOf  and  of  their  Settlements  in  Scotland,  England  and  Ireland. 
Edinb.,  1811  (p.  417). 

MOOTAliBMBBBT:  Le»  Maine*  d9  Occident,  Vol.  UL,  pp.  99-332  (Paris, 
1868). 

The  DUKE  OP  ARGYLL:  lona.    Second  ed.,  London,  1871  (149  pp.). 

*ADAMNAK:  Life  of  St.  Columba,  Founder  of  Hy,  ed.  by  William  Reeves 
(Canon  of  Armagh),  Edinburgh,  1874  (Originally  printed  for  the 
Irish  Archoeolog.  Society  and  for  the  Bannatyne  Club,  Dublin,  1856). 

1  The  meeting  of  the  two  saints,  as  recorded  by  Jbcdyn,  reminds  one  of  the 
meeting  of  St.  Antony  with  the  fabulous  Paul  of  Thebes* 
*  See  Forbes,  Kcdvndan,  p.  372,  and  Skene,  II.  197. 
'  Forbes  (p.  319)  gives  a  list  of  26. 


2  18.  ST.  COLUMBA  AND  THE  MONASTERY  OF  IONA.      65 

*  SKENE:  Celtic  Scotland,  IL  52  sqq.  (Edinb.,  1877). 
Comp.  the  Lit.  in  g  7. 

SAINT  COLUMBA  or  COLUMBCILLE  (died  June  9,  597)  is  the 
real  apostle  of  Scotland.  He  is  better  known  to  us  than  Ninian 
and  Kentigern.  The  account  of  Adamnan  (624-704),  the  ninth 
abbot  of  Hy,  was  written  a  century  after  Columba's  death  from 
authentic  records  and  oral  traditions,  although  it  is  a  panegyric 
rather  than  a  history.  Later  biographers  have  romanized  him 
like  St.  Patrick.  He  was  descended  from  one  of  the  reigning 
families  of  Ireland  and  British  Dalriada,  and  was  born  at  Gar- 
tan  in  the  county  of  Donegal  about  A.D.  521.  He  received  in 
baptism  the  symbolical  name  Colum,  or  in  Latin  Oolumba  (Dove, 
as  the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost),  to  which  was  afterwards 
added  cMe  (or  MJ),  I  e.  "of  the  church/'  or  "the  dove  of  the 
cells,"  on  account  of  his  frequent  attendance  at  public  worship, 
or,  more  probably,  for  his  being  the  founder  of  many  churches.1 
He  entered  the  monastic  seminary  of  Clonard,  founded  by  St. 
Finnian,  and  afterwards  another  monastery  near  Dublin,  and 
was  ordained  a  priest.  He  planted  the  church  at  Deny  in  545, 
the  monastery  of  Durrow  in  553,  and  other  churches.  He 
seems  to  have  fondly  clung  all  his  life  to  his  native  Ireland, 
and  to  the  convent  of  Deny.  In  one  of  his  elegies,  which  were 
probably  retouched  by  the  patriotism  of  some  later  Irish  bard, 
he  sings : 

"  Were  all  the  tributes  of  Scotia  [t  e.  Ireland]  mine, 
From  its  midland  to  its  borders, 
I  would  give  all  for  one  little  cell 
In  my  beautiful  Deny. 
For  its  peace  and  for  its  purity, 
For  the  white  angels  that  go 
In  crowds  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
I  love  my  beautiful  Deny. 

1  In  the  Irish  calendar  there  are  twenty  saints  of  the  name  Columba,  or 
Colwnbanus,  Columbus,  Columb.  The  most  distinguished  next  to  Columbcille 
is  Columbanus,  the  Continental  missionary,  who  has  often  been  confounded 
with  Columba.  In  the  Continental  hagiology,  the  name  is  used  for  female 
saints.  See  Beeres,  p.  248. 


66  FOIJTBTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

For  its  quietness  and  purity, 

For  heaven's  angels  that  come  and  go 

Under  every  leaf  of  the  oaks, 

I  love  my  beautiful  Dcrry. 

My  Derry,  my  fair  oak  grove, 
My  dear  little  cell  and  dwelling, 
O  God,  in  the  heavens  above  I 
Let  him  who  profanes  it  be  cursed. 
Beloved  are  Durrow  and  Dcrry, 
Beloved  is  Ilaphoe  the  pure, 
Beloved  the  fertile  Drumhome, 
Beloved  are  Sords  and  Kells ! 
But  sweeter  and  fairer  to  me 
The  salt  sea  where  the  sea-gulls  cry 
When  I  come  to  Derry  from  far, 
It  is  sweeter  and  dearer  to  me — 
Sweeter  to  me."1 

In  563,  the  forty-second  year  of  his  age,  Columba,  prompted 
by  a  passion  for  travelling  and  a  zeal  for  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity/ sailed  with  twelve  fellow-apostles  to  the  West  of  Scot- 
land, possibly  on  invitation  of  the  provincial  king,  to  whom  he 
was  related  by  blood.  lie  was  presented  with  the  island  of 
fly,  commonly  called  Jom,3  near  the  Western  coast  of  Scotland, 
about  fifty  miles  West  from  Oban.  It  is  an  inhospitable  island, 
three  miles  and  a  half  long  ami  a  mile  and  a  half  broad,  partly 
cultivated,  partly  covered  with  lull  pasture,  retired  dells,  morass 

1  Montalembert,  lit.  112.  This  poem  strikes  tho  key-note  of  father  Front's 
more  musical  "Bells  of  Hhandon  which  sound  so  grand  on  the  river  Lee/' 

a  "Pro  Chrutto  peregrmwe  wlnw,"  says  Adamnan  (p.  108),  who  knows  nothing 
of  his  excommunication  and  exile  from  Ireland  in  consequence  of  a  great  tat- 
tle. And  yet  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  this  tradition*  In  one  of  the  Irish 
Keltic  poems  ascribed  to  dolumbjv,  he  laments  to  have  been  driven  from  Erin 
by  his  own  fault  and  in  consequence  of  the  blood  shed  in  his  battles.  See 
Montalembert,  III.  145. 

8  This  is  not  an  adaptation  to  Columba's  Hebrew  name  (Neander),  but  a 
corruption  of  li-shona,  i,  G,  the  Holy  Island  (from  E,  the  Keltic  name  for  island, 
and  7wna  or  shona,  sacred).  So  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander  and  Cunningham. 
But  Beeves  (I  c.  Introd.,  p.  caooc.)  regards  loua  as  the  genuine  form,  which  is 
the  feminine  adjective  of  lou  (to  be  pronounced  like  the  English  Tea).  The 
island  has  borne  no  fewer  than  thirty  names. 


§  18.  ST.  COLUMBA  AND  THE  MONASTERY  OF  IONA.      67 

and  rocks,  now  in  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  numbering 
about  three  hundred  Protestant  inhabitants,  an  Established 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  a  Free  Church.  The  neighboring 
island  of  Staffa,  though  smaller  and  uninhabited,  is  more  inter- 
esting to  the  ordinary  tourist,  and  its  Fingal's  Cave  is  one  of 
the  most  wonderful  specimens  of  the  architectural  skill  of  na- 
ture; it  looks  like  a  Gothic  cathedral,  66  feet  high,  42  feet 
broad,  and  227  feet  long,  consisting  of  majestic  basalt  columns, 
an  arched  roof,  and  an  open  portal  towards  the  ocean,  which 
dashes  in  and  out  in  a  constant  succession  of  waves,  sounding 
solemn  anthems  in  this  unique  temple  of  nature.  Columba 
and  his  fellow-monks  must  have  passed  it  on  their  missionary 
wanderings;  but  they  were  too  much  taken  up  -with  heaven  to 
look  upon  the  wonders  of  the  earth,  and  the  cave  remained 
comparatively  unknown  to  the  world  till  1772.  Those  islands 
wore  the  same  aspect  in  the  sixth  century  as  now,  with  the 
exception  of  the  woods,  which  have  disappeared.  Walter  Scott 
(in  the  "Lord  of  the  Isles")  has  thrown  the  charm  of  his  poetry 
over  the  Hebridean  archipelago,  from  which  proceeded  the 
Christianization  of  Scotland.1 

By  the  labors  of  Columba  and  his  successors,  lona  has  become 
one  of  the  most  venerable  and  interesting  spots  in  the  history  of 
Christian  missions.  It  was  a  light-house  in  the  darkness  of 
heathenism.  We  can  form  no  adequate  conception  of  the  self- 
denying  zeal  of  those  heroic  missionaries  of  the  extreme  North, 
who,  in  a  forbidding  climate  and  exposed  to  robbers  and  wild 
beasts,  devoted  their  lives  to  the  conversion  of  savages.  Columba 
and  his  friends  left  no  monuments  of  stone  and  wood ;  nothing 
is  shown  but  the  spot  on  the  South  of  the  island  where  he  landed, 

1  "No  two  objects  of  interest/'  says  the  Duke  of  Argyll  (Two,  p.  1)  "could 
be  more  absolutely  dissimilar  in  kind  than  the  two  neighboring  islands,  Staffa 
and  lona: — lona  dear  to  Christendom  for  more  than  a  thouaand  years ; — Staffa 
known  to  the  scientific  and  the  curious  only  since  the  close  of  the  last  century. 
Nothing  but  an  accident  of  geography  could  unite  their  names.  The  number 
of  those  who  can  thoroughly  understand  and  enjoy  them  both  is  probably  very 
small." 


68  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

and  the  empty  stone  coffin  where  his  body  was  laid  together  with 
that  of  his  servant;  his  bones  were  removed  afterwards  to  Dun- 
keld.  The  old  convent  was  destroyed  and  the  monks  were 
killed  by  the  wild  Danes  and  Norsemen  in  the  tenth  century.  The 
remaining  ruins  of  lona — a  cathedral,  a  chapel,  a  nunnery,  a 
graveyard  with  the  tombstones  of  a  number  of  Scottish  and  Nor- 
wegian and  Irish  kings,  and  three  remarkable  carved  crosses, 
which  were  left  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  that  (according  to  a 
vague  tradition)  were  thrown  into  the  sea  by  the  iconoclastic 
zeal  of  the  Reformation — are  all  of  the  Roman  Catholic  period 
which  succeeded  the  original  Keltic  Christianity,  and  which 
lived  on  its  fame.  During  the  middle  ages  lona  was  a  sort  of 
Jerusalem  of  the  North,  where  pilgrims  loved  to  worship,  and 
kings  and  noblemen  desired  to  be  buried.  When  the  celebrated 
Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  approached  lona,  he 
felt  his  piety  grow  warmer.  No  friend  of  missions  can  visit 
that  lonely  spot,  shrouded  in  almost  perpetual  fog,  without 
catching  new  inspiration  and  hope  for  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  gospel  over  all  obstacles.1 

1  "Hither  came  holy  men  from  Erin  to  take  counsel  with  the  Saint  on  the 
troubles  of  clans  and  monasteries  which  were  still  dear  to  him.  Hither  came 
also  bad  men  Ted-handed  from  blood  and  sacrilege  to  make  confession  and  do 
penance  at  Columba's  feet  Hither,  too,  came  chieftains  to  be  blessed,  and  oven 
kings  to  be  ordained— for  it  is  curious  that  on  this  lonely  spot,  so  far  distant 
from  the  ancient  centres  of  Christendom,  took  place  the  first  recorded  case  of  a 
temporal  sovereign  seeking  from  a  minister  of  the  Church  what  appears  to  have 
been  very  like  formal  consecration.  Adamnan,  as  usual,  connects  his  narrative 
of  this  event,  which  took  place  in  547,  with  miraculous  circumstances,  and  with 
Divine  direction  to  Columba,  in  his  selection  of  Aldan,  one  of  the  early  kings 
of  the  Irish  Dalriadic  colony  in  Scotland. 

"The  fame  of  Columba's  supernatural  powers  attracted  many  and  strange  visi- 
tors to  the  shores  on  which  we  are  now  looking.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  remember, 
rith  the  Eeilig  Odhrainat  our  feet,  how  often  the  beautiml  galleys  of  that 
olden  time  came  up  the  sound  laden  with  the  dead, — '  their  dark  freight  a  van- 
ished life.'  A  grassy  mound  not  far  from  the  present  landing-place  is  known  as 
the  spot  on  which  bodies  were  laid  when  they  were  first  carried  to  the  shore. 
We  know  from  the  account  of  Columba's  own  burial  that  the  custom  waa  to 
wake  the  body  with  the  singing  of  psalms  during  three  days  and  nights  before 
laying  it  to  its  final  rest  It  was  then  borne  in  solemn  procession  to  the  grave. 


\  18.  ST.  COLUMBA  AND  THE  MONASTERY  OF  IOJSTA.     69 

The  arrival  of  Columba  at  lona  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Keltic  church  in  Scotland.  The  island  was  at  that  time  on  the 
confines  of  the  Pictic  and  Scotic  jurisdiction,  and  formed  a  con- 
venient base  for  missionary  labors  among  the  Scots,  who  were 
already  Christian  in  name,  but  needed  confirmation,  and  among 
the  Picte,  who  were  still  pagan,  and  had  their  name  from  paint- 
ing their  bodies  and  fighting  naked.  Columba  directed  his  zeal 
first  to  the  Picts;  he  visited  King  Brude  in  his  fortress,  and 
won  his  esteem  and  co-operation  in  planting  Christianity  among 
his  people.  "He  converted  them  by  example  as  well  as  by 
word"  (Bede).  He  founded  a  large  number  of  churches  and 
monasteries  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  directly  or  through  his  dis- 
ciples.1 He  was  involved  in  the  wars  so  frequent  in  those  days, 
when  even  women  were  required  to  aid  in  battle,  and  he  availed 
himself  of  military  force  for  the  overthrow  of  paganism.  He 
used  excommunication  very  freely,  and  once  pursued  a  plunderer 
with  maledictions  into  the  sea  until  the  water  reached  to  his 
knees.  But  these  rough  usages  did  not  interfere  with  the  vene- 
ration for  his  name.  He  was  only  a  fair  type  of  his  countrymen. 
"He  had,"  says  Montalembert,  "the  vagabond  inclination,  the 
ardent,  agitated,  even  quarrelsome  character  of  the  race."  He 
had  the  " perfervidum  ingenium  Scotorum"  He  was  manly,  tall 

How  many  of  such  processions  must  have  wound  along  the  path  that  leads  to 
the  Eeilig  Odhrain!  How  many  fleets  of  galleys  must  have  ridden  at  anchor 
on  that  hay  below  us,  with  all  those  expressive  signs  of  mourning  which  belong 
to  ships,  when  kings  and  chiefs  who  had  died  in  distant  lands  were  carried 
hither  to  be  buried  in  this  holy  Isle!  Prom  Ireland,  from  Scotland,  and  from 
distant  Norway,  there  came,  during  many  centuries,  many  royal  funerals  to  its 
shores.  And  at  this  day  by  far  the  most  interesting  remains  upon  the  Island 
are  the  curious  and  beautiful  tomb-stones  and  crosses  which  lie  in  the  Beilig 
Odhrain.  They  belong,  indeed,  even  the  most  ancient  of  them,  to  an  aare 
removed  by  many  hundred  years  from  Oolumba's  time.  But  thev  represent  the 
lasting  reverence  which  his  name  has  inspired  during  so  manv  generations  and 
the  desire  of  a  long  succession  of  chiefs  and  warriors  through  the  Middle  Ages 
and  down  almost  to  our  own  time,  to  be  buried  in  the  soil  he  trod."  The  Duke 
of  Aigyll,  L  &,  pp,  95-98. 

1  See  a  list  of  churches  in  Beeves,  p.  xHx.~bocL,  and  Forbes,  Kdendar,  etc* 
p.  306,  307;  comp.  also  Skene,  II.  127  sqq. 


70  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

and  handsome,  incessantly  active,  and  had  a  sonorous  and  far- 
reaching  voice,  rolling  forth  the  Psalms  of  David,  every  syllable 
distinctly  uttered.  He  could  discern  the  signs  of  the  weather. 
Adamnan  ascribes  to  him  an  angelic  countenance,  a  prophetic 
fore-knowledge  and  miracles  as  great  as  those  performed  by 
Christ,  such  as  changing  water  into  wine  for  the  celebration  of 
the  eucharist,  when  no  wine  could  be  obtained,  changing  bitter 
fruit  into  sweet,  drawing  water  from  a  rock,  calming  the  storm 
at  sea;  and  curing  many  diseases.  His  biography,  instead  of 
giving  solid  facts,  teems  with  fabulous  legends,  which  are  told 
with  childlike  credulity.  O'DonnelFs  biography  goes  still  fur- 
ther. Even  the  pastoral  staff  of  Columba,  left  accidentally  upon 
the  shore  of  lona,  was  transported  across  the  sea  by  his  prayers 
to  meet  its  disconsolate  owner  when  he  landed  somewhere  in 
Ireland.1 

Columba  died  beside  the  altar  in  the  church  while  engaged  in 
his  midnight  devotions.  Several  poems  are  ascribed  to  him — 
one  in  praise  of  the  natural  beauties  of  his  chosen  island,  and  a 
monastic  rule  similar  to  that  of  St.  Benedict;  but  the  "regula,  ao 
prcecepta"  of  Columba,  of  which  Wilfrid  spoke  at  the  synod  of 
Whitby,  probably  mean  discipline  or  observance  rather  than  a 
written  rule.* 

The  church  establishment  of  Columba  at  lona  belongs  to  the 
second  or  monastic  period  of  the  Irish  church,  of  which  it 
formed  an  integral  part.  It  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons  under  the  monastic  rule.  At  the  head  of  it  stood  a 
presbyter-abbot,  who  ruled  over  the  whole  province,  and  even 
the  bishops,  although  the  episcopal  function  of  ordination  was 
recognized.3  The  monks  were  a  family  of  brethren  living  in 
fommon.  They  were  divided  into  three  classes:  the  seniors, 
who  attended  to  the  religious  services,  instruction,  ami  the  tran- 

1  Montalembert's  delineation  of  Columba's  character  assumes,  apparently,  the 
truth  of  these  biographies,  and  is  more  eloquent  than  true.    See  Skene,  II.  145. 
*  On  the  reyida  Columbwi,  see  Ebrard,  147  sqq. 
»Bede,JT.J?.,IIL4;  V.9. 


J  18.  ST.  COLUMBA  AND  THE  MONASTERY  OF  IONA.  71 

scribing  of  the  Scriptures;  the  middle-aged,  who  were  the  work- 
ing brethren,  devoted  to  agriculture,  the  tending  of  the  cattle, 
and  domestic  labor;  and  the  youth,  who  were  alumni  under  in- 
struction. The  dress  consisted  of  a  white  tunica  or  under  gar- 
ment, and  a  Camilla  or  outer  garment  and  hood  made  of  wool. 
Their  food  was  bread,  milk,  eggs,  fish,  and  on  Sundays  and  fes- 
tivals mutton  or  beef.  The  doctrinal  views  and  ecclesiastical 
customs  as  to  the  observance  of  Easter  and  the  tonsure  were  the 
same  as  among  the  Britons  and  the  Irish  in  distinction  from  the 
Eoman  system  introduced  by  Augustin  among  the  Saxons.1 

The  monastery  of  lona,  says  Bede,  held  for  a  long  time  the 
pre-eminence  over  the  monasteries  and  churches  of  the  Picts  and 
Northern  Scots.  Columba's  successors,  he  adds,  were  distin- 
guished for  their  continency,  their  love  of  God,  and  strict  atten- 
tion to  their  rules  of  discipline,  although  they  followed  "  uncer- 
tain cycles  in  their  computation  of  the  great  festival  (Easter), 
because  they  were  so  far  away  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
had  none  to  supply  them  with  the  synodical  decrees  on  the  pas- 
chal observance;  wherefore  they  only  practised  such  works  of 
piety  and  chastity  as  they  could  learn  from  the  prophetical, 
evangelical,  and  apostolical  writings.  This  manner  of  keeping 
Easter  continued  among  them  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  till 
the  year  of  our  Lord's  incarnation  715." f 

Adamnan  (d.  704),  the  ninth  successor  of  Columba,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  visit  to  the  Saxons,  conformed  his  observance  of 
Easter  to  the  Koman  Church;  but  his  brethren  refused  to  follow 
him  in  this  change.  After  his  death,  the  community  of  lona 
became  divided  on  the  Easter  question,  until  the  Columban 
monks,  who  adhered  to  the  old  custom,  were  by  royal  command 
expelled  (715).  With  this  expulsion  terminates  the  primacy  of 
lona  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Picts. 

The  monastic  church  was  broken  up  or  subordinated  to  the 
hierarchy  of  the  secular  clergy. 

1  For  a  very  fall  account  of  the  economy  and  constitution  of  lona,  see  Beeves, 
Introduction  to  Life  of  Saint  Cokm&o,  pp.  c.-cxxxiL  '  H.  K  III.  4. 


72  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1049. 

§  19.  The  Culdees. 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  Columbau  monks  from  the  king- 
dom of  the  Picts  in  the  eighth  century,  the  term  Culdee  or  Cette 
De,  or  Kaledei,  first  appears  in  history,  and  has  given  rise  to 
much  controversy  and  untenable  theories.1  It  is  of  doubtful 
origin,  but  probably  means  servants  or  worshippers  of  God.8  It 
was  applied  to  anchorites,  who,  in  entire  seclusion  from  society, 
sought  the  perfection  of  sanctity.  They  succeeded  the  Columban 
monks.  They  afterwards  associated  themselves  into  communi- 
ties of  hermits,  and  were  finally  brought  under  canonical  rule 
along  with  the  secular  clergy,  until  at  length  the  name  of  Culdee 
became  almost  synonymous  with  that  of  secular  canon. 

The  term  Culdee  has  been  improperly  applied  to  the  whole 
Keltic  church,  and  a  superior  purity  has  been  claimed  for  it. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Columban  or  the  Keltic  church  of 
Scotland,  as  well  as  the  early  Irish  and  the  early  British  churches, 
differed  in  many  points  from  the  mediaeval  and  modern  church 
of  Rome,  and  represent  a  simpler  and  yet  a  very  active  mission- 
ary type  of  Christianity. 

The  leading  peculiarities  of  tibe  ancient  Keltic  church,  as  di&- 
tinct  from  the  Roman,  are: 

1  To  Adamnan  and  to  Bede,  the  name  was  entirely  unknown.  Skene  (II. 
226)  says:  "In  the  whole  range  of  ecclesiastical  history  there  is  nothing  more 
entirely  destitute  of  authority  than  the  application  of  this  name  to  the  Columban 
monks  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  or  more  utterly  baseless  than  the 
fabric  which  has  been  raised  upon  that  assumption."  The  most  learned  and 
ingenious  construction  of  an  imaginary  Protestant  Culdee  Church  was  furnished 
by  Ebrard  and  McLauchlan. 

*  The  word  OMte  is  variously  derived  from  the  Gaelic  GMe  De,  servant  of 
God ;  from  the  Keltic  Ouil  or  CM,  retreat,  recess,  and  Gutidich,  men  of  the  recess 
(Jamieson,  McLauchlan,  Cunningham);  from  the  Irish  Cfeife  2)e,  the  spouse  of 
God  (Ebrard),  or  the  servants  of  God  (Beeves);  from  the  Irinh  CW&z>  cowl,  i.e. 
the  black  monk;  from  the  Latin  Deicola,  cultores  Dei  (CWwfei),  worshippers  of 
God  the  Father,  in  distinction  from  CAritfieofo  (CWec&rirf  in  Irish),  or  ordinary 
Christians  (Skene);  from  the  Greek  KeMefrcu,  men  of  the  colls  (Goodall). 
The  earliest  Latin  form  is  Kdtdti.  In  Irish  Keile  as  a  siibsHntive  means 
«MIUS  maritus,  also  senw.  On  the  name,  see  Braun,  JDe  OwWew,  Bonn,  1840, 
McLauchlan,  pp.  175  sq.;  Ebrard,  pp.  2  sq.,  and  Skene,  IL  238. 


2  19.  THE  CULDEES.  73 

1.  Independence  of  the  Pope.    lona  was  its  Rome,  and  the 
Abbot  of  lona,  and  afterwards  of  Dunkeld,  though  a  mere  Pres- 
byter, ruled  all  Scotland. 

2.  Monasticism  ruling  supreme,  but  mixed  with  secular  life, 
and  not  bound  by  vows  of  celibacy;  while  in  the  Roman  church 
the  monastic  system  was  subordinated  to  the  hierarchy  of  the 
secular  clergy. 

3.  Bishops  without  dioceses  and  jurisdiction  and  succession. 

4.  Celebration  of  the  time  of  Easter. 

5.  Form  of  the  tonsure. 

It  has  also  been  asserted,  that  the  Kelts  or  Culdees  were 
opposed  to  auricular  confession,  the  worship  of  saints  and  images, 
purgatory,  transubstantiation,  the  seven  sacraments,  and  that  for 
this  reason  they  were  the  forerunners  of  Protestantism. 

But  this  inference  is  not  warranted.  Ignorance  is  one  thing, 
and  rejection  of  an  error  from  superior  knowledge  is  quite  ano- 
ther thing.  The  difference  is  one  of  form  rather  than  of  spirit. 
Owing  to  its  distance  and  isolation  from  the  Continent,  the  Keltic 
church,  while  superior  to  the  churches  in  Gaul  and  Italy — at 
least  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries — in  missionary  zeal 
and  success,  was  left  behind  them  in  other  things,  and  adhered 
to  a  previous  stage  of  development  in  truth  and  error.  But  the 
general  character  and  tendency  of  both  during  that  period  were 
essentially  different  from  the  genius  of  Protestant  Christianity. 
"We  fincl  among  the  Kelts  the  same  or  even  greater  love  for  mo- 
nasticfcm  and  asceticism,  the  same  superstitious  belief  in  incredi- 
ble miracles,  the  same  veneration  for  relics  (as  the  bones  of 
Columba  and  Aidan,  which  for  centuries  were  carried  from  place 
to  place),  the  same  scrupulous  and  narrow  zeal  for  outward  forms 
and  ceremonies  (as  the  observance  of  the  mere  time  of  Easter,  and 
the  mode  of  monastic  tonsure),  with  the  only  difference  that  the 
Keltic  church  adhered  to  an  older  and  more  defective  calendar, 
and  to  the  semi-circular  instead  of  the  circular  tonsure.  There 
is  not  the  least  evidence  that  the  Keltic  church  had  a  higher 
conception  of  Christian  freedom,  or  of  any  positive  distinctive 


74  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

principle  of  Protestantism,  such  as  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the 
Bible  in  opposition  to  tradition,  or  justification  by  faith  without 
works,  or  the  universal  priesthood  of  all  believers. l 

Considering,  then,  that  the  peculiarities  of  the  Keltic  church 
arose  simply  from  its  isolation  of  the  main  current  of  Christian 
history,  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Home,  with  all  its  incidental 
evils,  was  upon  the  whole  a  progress  in  the  onward  direction. 
Moreover,  the  Culdees  degenerated  into  a  state  of  indolence  and 
stagnation  during  the  darkness  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries, 
and  the  Danish  invasion,  with  its  devastating  and  disorganizing 
influences.  We  still  find  them  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  fre- 
quently at  war  with  the  Roman  clergy  about  landed  property, 
tithes  and  other  matters  of  self-interest,  but  not  on  matters 
of  doctrine,  or  Christian  life.  The  old  Culdee  convents  of 
St.  Andrews,  Dunkeld,  Dunblane  and  Brechin  were  turned 
into  the  bishop's  chapter  with  the  right  of  electing  the  bishop. 
Married  Culdees  were  gradually  supplanted  by  Canons-Regu- 
lar. They  lingered  longest  in  Brechin,  but  disappeared  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  The  decline  of  the  Culdees  was  the 
opportunity  of  Rome.  The  Saxon  priests  and  monks,  connected 
with  the  more  civilized  countries,  were  very  active  and  aggres- 
sive, building  cathedrals,  monasteries,  hospitals,  and  getting 
possession  of  the  land. 

1  The  Duke  of  Argyll,  who  is  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  remarks  (I  c.  p.  41)  ' 
"It  is  vain  to  look,  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  Scoto-Irish  Church,  for  the  model 
either  of  primitive  practice,  or  of  any  particular  system.  As  regards  the  theol- 
ogy of  Columba's  time,  although  it  was  not  what  we  now  understand  an  Roman, 
neither  assuredly  was  it  what  we  understand  as  Protestant.  Moulalembert 
boasts,  and  I  think  with  truth,  that  in  Columba's  Life  we  have  proof  of  the 
practice  of  the  auricular  confession,  of  the  invocation  of  saints,  of  confidence  in 
their  protection,  of  belief  in  transubstantiation  [?],  of  the  practices  of  fasting 
and  of  penance,  of  prayers  for  the  dead,  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  familiar— and 
it  must  be  added— in  most  superstitious  use.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  no 
symptom  of  the  worship  or  'cultus'  of  the  Virgin,  and  not  even  an  allusion  to 
such  an  idea  as  the  universal  bishopric  of  Borne,  or  to  any  special  authority  as 
seated  there." 


5  20.  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  KELTIC  CHURCH.  75 

§  20.   Extinction  of  the  Keltic  Church,  and  Triumph  of  Home 
under  King  David  I. 

The  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Scotch  church  is  the  reign 
of  the  devout  Saxon  queen  St.  Margaret,  one  of  the  best  queens  of 
Scotland  (1070-1093).  She  exerted  unbounded  influence  over  her 
illiterate  husband,  Malcolm  III.,  and  her  sons.  She  was  very 
benevolent,  self-denying,  well  versed  in  the  Scriptures,  zealous 
in  reforming  abuses,  and  given  to  excessive  fasting,  which  under- 
mined her  constitution  and  hastened  her  death.  "  In  St.  Mar- 
garet we  have  an  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  her  age.  What 
ostentatious  humility,  what  almsgiving,  what  prayers!  What 
piety,  had  it  only  been  freed  from  the  taint  of  superstition !  The 
Culdees  were  listless  and  lazy,  while  she  was  unwearied  in  doing 
good.  The  Culdees  met  her  in  disputation,  but,  being  ignorant, 
they  were  foiled.  Death  could  not  contend  with  life.  The 
Indian  disappears  before  the  advance  of  the  white  man.  The 
Keltic  Culdee  disappeared  before  the  footsteps  of  the  Saxon 
priest."1 

The  change  was  effected  by  the  same  policy  as  that  of  the 
Norman  kings  towards  Ireland.  The  church  was  placed  upon 
a  territorial  in  the  place  of  a  tribal  basis,  and  a  parochial  system 
and  a  diocesan  episcopacy  was  substituted  for  the  old  tribal 
churches  with  their  monastic  jurisdiction  and  functional  episco- 
pacy. Moreover  the  great  religious  orders  of  the  Roman  Church 
were  introduced  and  founded  great  monasteries  as  centres  of 
counter-  influence.  And  lastly,  the  Culdees  were  converted  from 
secular  into  regular  canons  and  thus  absorbed  into  the  Roman 
system.  When  Turgot  was  appointed  bishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
A.D.  1107,  "the  whole  rights  of  the  Keledei  over  the  whole 
kingdom  of  Scotland  passed  to  the  bishopric  of  St.  Andrews." 

From  the  time  of  Queen  Margaret  a  stream  of  Saxons  and 
Normans  poured  into  Scotland,  not  as  conquerors  but  as  settlers, 
and  acquired  rapidly,  sometimes  by  royal  grant,  sometimes  by 

*  Cunningham,  Church  Hist,  of  Scotland,  p.  100. 


76  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  540  TO  1049. 

marriage,  the  most  fertile  districts  from  the  Tweed  to  the  Pent- 
land  Firth.  From  these  settlers  almost  every  noble  family  of 
Scotland  traces  its  descent  They  brought  with  them  English 
civilization  and  religion. 

The  sons  and  successors  of  Margaret  enriched  the  church  by 
magnificent  endowments.  Alexander  I.  founded  the  bishoprics 
of  Moray  and  Dunkeld.  His  younger  brother,  David  L,  the 
sixth  son  of  Malcolm  III.,  who  married  Maud,  a  grand-niece  of 
William  the  Conqueror  (1110)  and  ruled  Scotland  from  1124  to 
1153,  founded  the  bishoprics  of  Ross,  Aberdeen,  Caithness, 
•and  Brechin,  and  several  monasteries  and  religious  houses. 
The  nobility  followed  his  example  of  liberality  to  the  church 
and  the  hierarchy  so  that  in  the  course  of  a  few  centuries  one 
half  of  the  national  wealth  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy, 
who  were  at  the  same  time  in  possession  of  all  the  learning. 

In  the  latter  part  of  David's  reign  an  active  crusade  com- 
menced against  iihe  Culdee  establishments  from  St.  Andrews  to 
lona,  until  the  very  name  gradually  disappeared;  the  last  men- 
tion being  of  the  year  1332,  when  the  usual  formula  of  their 
exclusion  in  the  election  of  a  bishop  was  repeated. 

"  Thus  the  old  Keltic  Church  came  to  an  end,  leaving  no  ves- 
tiges behind  it,  save  here  and  there  the  roofless  walls  of  what 
had  been  a  church,  and  the  numerous  old  burying-grounds  to 
the  use  of  which  the  people  still  cling  with  tenacity,  and  where 
occasionally  an  ancient  Keltic  cross  tells  of  its  former  state.  All 
else  has  disappeared;  and  the  only  records  we  have  of  their  his- 
tory are  the  names  of  the  saints  by  whom  they  were  founded 
preserved  in  old  calendars,  iihe  fountains  near  the  old  churches 
bearing  their  name,  the  village  fairs  of  immemorial  antiquity 
held  on  their  day,  and  here  and  there  a  few  lay  families  holding 
a  small  portion  of  land,  as  hereditary  custodiers  of  the  pastoral 
staff,  or  other  relic  of  the  reputed  founder  of  the  church,  with 
Borne  small  remains  of  its  jurisdiction/'  * 

1  Skene,  XL  418. 


IL  THE  CONVERSION  OF  FKANCE,  GERMANY,  ETC.      77 


IL  THE  CONVERSION  OF  FRANCE,  GERMANY,  AND  ADJACENT 

COUNTRIES. 

General  Literature. 

I.  Germany  before  Christianity. 
TACITUS:  Germama  (cap.  2,  9, 11,  27,  39-45) ;  Annal.  (XIII.  57);  SUst 

(IV.  64). 

JAC.  GBIMM:  Deutsche  Mythologie.     Gottingen,  2nd  ed.  1854,  2  vols. 
A.  F.  OzANAM:  Les  Germains  avant  le  christianisme.    Par.  1847. 
K.  SIMBOCK:  Deutsche  Mytiiologie.    Bonn,  2nd  ed.  1864. 
A.  PLANCK:  Die  Goiter  und  der  Gottesglaube  der  Deutschen.    In  "  Jahrb. 

far  Deutsche  ThcoL,"    1866,  No.  1. 

II-  The  Christianization  of  Germany. 
F.  W.  RETTBEBG:  Kirckengeschiekte  Deutschlands.    Gottingen,  1846-48. 

2  vols. 
O.  J.  HEFELE  (R.  C.) :  Geschichte  der  Einfuhrung  des  Christenthums  im 

sudwesfl.  Deutechland.     Tubingen  1837. 
H.  RUCFEBT  :  Culturgeschichte  des  deutschen  Voltes  in  der  Zeit  des  Ueber* 

gangs  aus  dem  Hddenthum.    Leipz.  1853,  2  vols. 
W.  .KBAFFT:    Eirchengeschichte   der    German.    Volker.     Berlin   1854 

(fbrst  vol.) 
HlEMER  (R.  C-):    Emfuhrung  des  Christenthums  in  Deutschen  Landen. 

Schaffhausen  1857  sqq.  4  vols. 
COUNT  I>E  MONTALEMBEBT  (R.  C.) :    The  Monks  of  the  West  from  St. 

Benedict  to  St.  Bernard.    Edinb.  and  Lond.  1861  sqq.  7  vols. 
L  FBIEDMCH  (R.  O.,  since  1870  Old  Cath.) :  Kirchmgesohichte  Deutsch- 

lands.    Regensb.  1866, 1869,  2  vols. 
OHAKLES  MERIVALE:  Conversion  of  the  West.     The  Cmtiriental  Teutons. 

London  1878.    (Popular). 
O.  KOBBEB:    Die  Ausbreitung  des   Christenthums  im  sudlichen  Baden. 

Heidelb.  1878. 
R.  CBUEL:    Geschichte  der  deutschen  fredigt  im  Mittdalter.    Detmold 

1879.    (Ohs.  I.  and  IL) 

§  21.  Arian  Christianity  among  the  Goths  and  other  German  Tribes. 

JL  Editions  of  the  remains  of  the  Gothic  Bible  Version  of  WTTLPILA:  by 
H.  C.  VON  DEB  GABELENZ  and  J.  LOEBE,  Leipz.  1836-46 ;  MASS- 
MANN,  1856-57 ;  E.  BEBNHABDT,  1875  (with  the  Greek  text  and 
notes) ;  and  STAMM,  7th  ed.  1878,  and  in  fac-simile  by  UPPSTBOM, 
1854-1868.  See  also  UuPHnLaB  Opera,  and  SCHAFF,  Compan.  to 
Or.  Test,  p.  150. 

ULPHIL.B  Opera  (Versio  Bfolwrwm  Gothica),  in  Migne's  Patrolog.,  Tom. 
XVIII.  pp.  462-1559  (with  a  Gothic  glossary). 

XL  G.  WATTZ:  Ueber  das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Ulfila.    Hanover  1840. 


78  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.B.  590  TO  1049. 

W.  BESSEL:  Das  Leben  des    Ulfilas  und  die  Bekehrung  der  Gothen  zuvn 

Ctiristenthum.    Gutting.  1860. 

W.  KRAFFT:  L  c.  I.  213-32C ;  and  De  Fontibm  Ulfilce  ArianismL  1860. 
A.  HELFPEBICH;  Der  west-gothiselie  Arianismus  und  die  spanische  Ket* 

zergeschichte.    Berlin  I860. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  conversion  of  the  Continental  Teutons, 
especially  those  of  France  and  Germany. 

The  first  wholesale  conversions  of  the  Germanic  or  Teutonic 
race  to  the  Christian  religion  took  place  among  the  Goths  in  the 
time  when  Arianism  was  at  the  height  of  power  in  the  East 
Roman  empire.  The  chief  agents  were  clerical  and  other  cap- 
tives of  war  whom  the  Goths  in  their  raids  carried  with  them 
from  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  and  whom  they  learned 
to  admire  and  love  for  their  virtue  and  supposed  miraculous 
power.  Constantine  the  Great  entered  into  friendly  relations 
with  them,  and  is  reported  by  Eusebius  and  Socrates  to  have 
subjected  them  to  the  cross  of  Christ.  It  is  certain  that  some 
ecclesiastical  organization  was  effected  at  that  time.  Theophilus, 
a  bishop  of  the  Goths,  is  mentioned  among  the  fathers  of  the 
council  of  Mcsea,  325. 

The  real  apostle  of  the  Goths  is  ULFILAS/  who  was  consecrated 
bishop  in  348  at  Constantinople,  and  died  there  in  381,  aged 
seventy  years.  He  invented  the  Gothic  alphabet,  and  translated 
the  Bible  into  Gothic,  but  was  an  Arian,  or  rather  a  semi-Arian, 
who  regarded  Christ  as  a  secondary  God  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
merely  as  a  sanctifying  power.2 

Arianism  spread  with  great  rapidity  among  the  Visigoths, 
Ostrogoths,  Burgundians,  and  Vandals.  This  heretical  form  of 
Christianity,  however,  was  more  a  matter  of  accident  than  pref- 
erence and  conviction  among  the  Germans,  and  soon  gave  way 
to  orthodoxy  when  they  became  acquainted  with  it.  When 
Alaric,  the  famous  king  of  the  Visigoths,  captured  Rome  (410), 


1  The  usual  spelling.    Better :  WuFfla,  i.  e.  Wolflwn,  IMe 

2  In  his  testamentary  creed,  which  he  always  held  (semper  tic  credidi)t  he  con- 
fesses faith  "In  God  the  Father  and  in  his  only  begotten  Son  our  Lord  and  God. 
and  in  the  Holy  Spirit  as  wrtutem  ittumiTiantem  et  scmctiflcantemj  nte  Dfwi  nee 
Dominwn,  sed  ministrum  ChrM"    Comp.  Krafft,  1.  c.  328  sqq. 


I  21.  AB1AN  CHRISTIANITY  AMONG  THE  GOTHS,  ETC.    79 

ne  treated  the  city  with  marked  leniency,  which  Augustin  justly 
traced  to  the  influence  of  the  Christian  faith  even  in  heretical 
form.  The  Vandals,  the  rudest  among  the  Teutonic  tribes, 
made  an  exception;  they  fiercely  persecuted  the  orthodox  Chris- 
tians in  North  Africa  (since  430)  and  desolated  this  once  flou- 
rishing field  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  scene  of  the  immortal 
labors  of  St.  Augustin.  Their  kingdom  was  destroyed  under 
Justinian  (534),  but  the  Catholic  Church  never  rose  from  its 
ruins,  and  the  weak  remnant  was  conquered  by  the  sword  of 
Islam  (670). 

Chrysostom  made  a  noble  effort  to  convert  the  Eastern  Goths 
from  Arianism  to  Catholicity,  but  his  mission  ceased  after  his 
death  (407). 

The  conversion  of  the  Franks  to  Catholic  Christianity  and 
various  political  circumstances  led  to  the  abandonment  of  Arian- 
ism among  the  other  Germanic  tribe*.  The  Burgundians  who 
spread  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Rhone  and  Saone,  embraced  Cath- 
olic Christianity  in  517,  and  were  incorporated  into  the  French 
kingdom  in  534.  The  Suevi  who  spread  from  Eastern  Germany 
into  France  and  Spain,  embraced  the  Catholic  faith  in  550,  The 
Visigoths  in  Spain,  through  their  king,  Reccared  the  Catholic, 
subscribed  an  orthodox  creed  at  the  third  Council  of  Toledo,  A. 
D.  589,  but  the  last  of  the  Gothic  kings,  Roderic,  was  conquered 
by  the  Saracens,  breaking  into  Spain  from  Africa,  in  the  bloody 
battle  of  Xercs  do  la  Frontera,  A.  D.  711. 

The  last  stronghold  of  Arianism  were  the  Longobards  or 
Lombards,  who  conquered  Northern  Italy  (still  called  Lombardy) 
and  at  first  persecuted  the  Catholics.  They  were  converted  to 
the  orthodox  faith  by  the  wise  influence  of  Pope  Gregory  I.  (590- 
616),  and  the  Catholic  queen  Theodelinde  (d.  625)  whose  hus- 
band Agilulf  (590-616)  remained  Arian,  but  allowed  his  son 
Adelwald  to  be  baptized  and  brought  up  in  the  Catholic  Church. 
An  Arian  reaction  followed,  but  Catholicism  triumphed  under 
Grimoald  (662-671),  and  Liutprand  (773-774).  Towards  the 
close  of  the  eighth  century,  Pepin  and  Charlemagne,  in  the  interest 


°  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

Upon  her  tomb  in  Kildare  arose  the  inextinguishable  flame 
called  "the  Light  of  St.  Bridget,"  which  her  nuns  (like  the 
Vestal  Virgins  of  Borne)  kept 

"Through  long  ages  of  darkness  and  storm"  (Moore). 

Six  lives  of  her  were  published  by  Colgan  in  his  Trias  Thaw- 
matorgus,  and  five  by  the  Bollandists  in  the  Ada  Sanctorum. 

Ori^cal  Note  on  St.  Patrick. 

We  have  only  one  or  two  genuine  documents  from  Patrick,  both  writ- 
ten in  semi-barbarous  (early  Irish)  Latin,  but  breathing  an  humble,  devout 
and  fervent  missionary  spirit  without  anything  specifically  Boman,  viz. 
his  autobiographical  Confession  (in  25  chapters),  written  shortly  before 
his  death  (493?),  and  his  Letter  of  remonstrance  to  Corotieus  (or  Ccrcdig), 
a  British  chieftain  (nominally  Christian),  probably  of  Cercdigion  or 
Cardigan,  who  had  made  a  raid  into  Ireland,  and  sold  sovenil  of 
Patrick's  converts  into  slavery  (10  chapters).  The  Confession,  as  con- 
tained in  the  "Book  of  Armagh,"  is  alleged  to  have  been  transcribed 
before  A.  D.  807  from  Patrick's  original  autograph,  which  was  then 
partly  illegible.  There  are  four  other  MSS.  of  the  eleventh  century, 
with  sundry  additions  towards  the  close,  which  seem  to  be  independent 
copies  of  the  same  original.  See  Haddan  &  Stubbs,  note  on  p.  296. 
The  Epistle  to  Coroticus  is  much  shorter,  and  not  so  generally  accepted. 
Both  documents  were  first  printed  in  1656,  then  in  1668  in  the  Acta 
Sanctorum^  also  in  Migne's  Patrologfa  (Vol.  53),  in  Miss  Cusack's  Life 
of  /Sfc.  Patrick,  in  the  work  of  Ebrard  (I  c.  482  sqq.),  and  in  Haddan 
&  Stubbs,  CouncUs  (Vol.  IL,  P.  IL,  296  sqq.)- 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  about  Patrick's  nationality,  whether  ho 
was  of  Scotch,  or  British,  or  French  extraction.  He  begins  his  Confession. : 
"I,  Patrick,  a  sinner,  the  rudest  and  the  least  of  all  the  foithful,  and  the 
most  contemptible  with  the  multitude  ( Ego  Patricius,  pcceator,  rusticmi- 
mu9  et  minimw  omnium  fidelium  et  contemptibiliwmus  apud  plurimos,  or, 
according  to  another  reading,  contemptibilis  sum  apud  pturimos),  had  for 
my  fether  Calpornus  (or  Calphurnius),  a  deacon  (diaconvm,  or  diaeonem), 
-flie  son  of  Potitus  (al.  Photius),  a  presbyter  (filium  quondam  Pbtiti,  pres- 
byteri),  who  lived  in  the  village  of  Bannavem  (or  Banaven)  of  Tabernia; 
for  he  had  a  cottage  in  the  neighborhood  where  I  was  captured.  I  was 
then  about  sixteen  years  old;  but  I  was  ignorant  of  the  true  God,  and 
-was  led  away  into  captivity  to  Hibernia."  Bannavem  of  Tabernia  is 
perhaps  Banavie  in  Lochaber  in  Scotland  (McLauchlan) ;  other*  fix  the 


g  22.  CONVEESION  OF  CLOVIS  AND  THE  FEAKKS.       81 

leaving  desolation  behind  them,  but  the  Franks  settled  there 
and  changed  Gaul  into  France,  as  the  Anglo-Saxons  changed 
Britain  into  England.  They  conquered  the  Gallo-Eomans,  cru- 
elly spoiled  and  almost  exterminated  them  in  the  North-Eastern 
districts.  Before  they  accepted  the  Christianity  of  the  conquered 
race,  they  learned  their  vices.  "  The  greatest  evil  of  barbarian 
government/'  says  Henri  Martin,1  "  was  perhaps  the  influence 
of  the  greedy  and  corrupt  Bomans  who  insinuated  themselves 
into  the  confidence  of  their  new  masters."  To  these  degenerate 

o 

Christians  Montalembert  traces  the  arts  of  oppression  and  the 
refinements  of  debauchery  and  perfidy  which  the  heathen  Ger- 
mans added  to  their  native  brutality.  "  The  barbarians  derived 
no  advantage  from  their  contact  with  the  Roman  world,  depraved 
as  it  was  under  the  empire.  They  brought  with  them  manly 
virtues  of  which  the  conquered  race  had  lost  even  the  recollec- 
tion ;  but  they  borrowed,  at  the  same  time,  abject  and  contagious 
vices,  of  which  the  Germanic  world  had  no  conception.  They 
found  Christianity  there;  but  before  they  yielded  to  its  benefi- 
cent influence,  they  had  time  to  plunge  into  all  the  baseness  and 
debauchery  of  a  civilization  corrupted  long  before  it  was  van- 
quished. The  patriarchal  system  of  government  which  charac- 
terized the  ancient  Germans,  in  their  relations  with  their  children 
and  skves  as  well  as  with  their  chiefs,  fell  into  ruin  in  contact 
with  that  contagious  depravity."2 

The  conversion  of  the  Saliao.  Franks  took  place  under  the  lead 
of  their  victorious  king  CHLOBWia  or  CJLOVIS  (Ludovicus, 
Louis),  the  son  of  Childeric  and  grandson  of  Merovig  (hence 
the  name  of  Merovingians).  He  ruled  from  the  year  481  to  his 
death  in  511.  With  him  begins  the  history  not  only  of  the  French 
empire,  its  government  and  laws,  but  also  of  the  French  nation, 
its  religion  and  moral  habits.  He  married  a  Christian  princess, 
Ohlotilda,  a  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  Burgundians  (493),  and 
allowed  his  child  to  be  baptized.  Before  the  critical  battle  at 

1  Yol.  I.  p.  394,  quoted  by  Montalembert. 
9  Montalembert,  VoL  IL  p.  230. 


82  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

Tolbiac1  near  Cologne  against  the  invasion  of  the  Allemanni,  he 
prayed  to  Jesus  Christ  for  aid  after  having  first  called  upon  his 
own  gods,  and  promised,  in  case  of  victory,  to  submit  to  baptism 
together  with  his  warriors.  After  the  victory  he  was  instructed 
by  Bishop  Remigius  of  Rhcims.  When  he  heard  the  story  of 
the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  he  exclaimed :  "  Would  I  had  been 
there  with  my  valiant  Franks  to  avenge  him I"  On  Christmas, 
in  the  year  496,  he  descended  before  the  cathedral  of  Rheims  into 
the  baptismal  basin,  and  three  thousand  of  his  warriors  followed 
him  as  into  the  joys  of  paradise.  "  When  they  arose  from  the 
waters,  as  Christian  disciples,  one  might  have  seen  fourteen  cen- 
turies of  empire  rising  with  them;  the  whole  array  of  chivalry, 
the  long  series  of  the  crusades,  the  deep  philosophy  of  the  schools, 
in  one  word  all  the  heroism,  all  the  liberty,  all  the  learning  of 
the  later  ages.  A  great  nation  was  commencing  its  career  in  the 
world — that  nation  was  the  Franks."2 

But  the  change  of  religion  had  little  or  no  effect  on  the  charac- 
ter of  Clovis  and  his  descendants,  whose  history  is  tarnished  with 
atrocious  crimes.  The  Merovingians,  half  tigers,  half  lambs, 
passed  with  astonishing  rapidity  from  horrible  massacres  to  pas- 
sionate demonstrations  of  contrition,  and  from  the  confessional 
back  again  to  the  excesses  of  their  native  cruelty.  The  crimes 
of  Clovis  are  honestly  told  by  such  saintly  biographers  as  Gre- 
gory of  Tours  and  Hincmar,  who  feel  no  need  of  any  excuse  for 
him  in  view  of  his  services  to  religion.  St.  Remigius  even 
advised  the  war  of  conquest  against  the  Visigoths,  because  they 
were  Arians. 

"The  Franks/'  says  a  distinguished  Catholic  Frenchman,3 
"were  sad  Christians.  While  they  respected  the  freedom  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  made  external  profession  of  it,  they  violated 
without  scruple  all  its  precepts,  and  at  the  same  time  the  simplest 

1  Tolbiacum,  Zulpich.    *  Ozanam,  Etudes  Germoffviquea,  H,  54. 

*  Montalembert,  IL  235.    Comp.  also  the  graphic  description  of  the  Hero* 
Yingian  house  in  Dean  MUman's  Lot.  Christ.,  Bk.  HI.,  ch.  2  (Vol.  L, 
Am.ed.). 


J  22.  CONVEESION  OF  CLOVIS  AND  THE  FKANKS.        83 

laws  of  humanity.  After  having  prostrated  themselves  before 
the  tomb  of  some  holy  martyr  or  confessor;  after  having  distin- 
guished themselves  by  the  choice  of  an  irreproachable  bishop; 
after  having  listened  respectfully  to  the  voice  of  a  pontiff  or 
monk,  we  see  them,  sometimes  in  outbreaks  of  fury,  sometimes 
by  cold-blooded  cruelties,  give  full  course  to  the  evil  instincts  of 
their  savage  nature.  Their  incredible  perversity  was  most  appa- 
rent in  the  domestic  tragedies,  the  fratricidal  executions  and 
assassinations,  of  which  Clovis  gave  the  first  example,  and  which 
marked  the  history  of  his  son  and  grandson  with  an  ineffaceable 
stain.  Polygamy  and  perjury  mingled  in  their  daily  life  with  a 
semi-pagan  superstition,  and  in  reading  these  bloody  biographies, 
scarcely  lightened  by  some  transient  gleams  of  faith  or  humility, 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that,  in  embracing  Christianity,  they  gave 
up  a  single  pagan  vice  or  adopted  a  single  Christian  virtue. 

"  It  was  against  this  barbarity  of  the  soul,  far  more  alarming 
than  grossness  and  violence  of  manners,  that  the  Church  trium- 
phantly struggled.  From  the  midst  of  these  frightful  disorders, 
of  this  double  current  of  corruption  and  ferocity,  the  pure  and 
resplendent  light  of  Christian  sanctity  was  about  to  rise.  But 
the  secular  clergy,  itself  tainted  by  the  general  demoralization  of 
the  two  races,  was  not  sufficient  for  this  task.  They  needed  the 
powerful  and  soon  preponderating  assistance  of  the  monastic 
jurmy.  It  did  not  fail:  the  church  and  France  owe  to  it  the 
decisive  victory  of  Christian  civilization  over  a  race  much  more 
difficult  to  subdue  than  the  degenerate  subjects  of  Eome  or  By- 
zantium. While  the  Franks,  coming  from  the  North,  completed 
the  subjugation  of  Gaul,  the  Benedictines  were  about  to  approach 
from  the  South,  and  super-impose  a  pacific  and  beneficent  domi- 
nion upon  the  Germanic  barbarian1  conquest.  The  junction  and 
union  of  tihese  forces,  so  unequal  in  their  civilizing  power,  were 
destined  to  exercise  a  sovereign  influence  over  the  future  of  our 
country." 

Among  tihese  Benedictine  monks,  ST.  MA.TJBTTS  occupies  the 
most  prominent  place*  He  left  Monte  Casino  before  the  death 


84  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

of  St.  Benedict  (about  540),  with  four  companions,  crossed  the 
Alps,1  founded  Gknfeuil  on  the  Loire,  the  first  Benedictine  mo- 
nastery in  France,  and  gave  his  name  to  that  noble  band  of 
scholars  who,  more  than  a  thousand  years  after,  enriched  the 
church  with  the  best  editions  of  the  fathers  and  other  works  of 
sacred  learning.1  He  had  an  interview  with  King  Theodebert 
(the  grandson  of  Clovis),  was  treated  with  great  reverence  and 
received  from  him  a  large  donation  of  crown  lands.  Monastic 
establishments  soon  multiplied  and  contributed  greatly  to  the 
civilization  of  France.8 

§  23.  Columbanw  and  the  Irish  JIBssionaries  on  the  Continent. 

I.  SOTTBCES. 

The  works  of  COLTTMBAJNTTS  in  PATRICK  FLEMING'S  Collectanea 
sacra  (Lovanii,  1667),  and  in  MlGNE:  Patrokg^  Tom.  87,  pp.  1013- 
1055.  His  life  by  JONAS  in  the  Ada  Sand.  Ord.  £med.t  Tom.  II., 
Sec.  H,  2-26.  (Also  in  Fleming's  Coll.) 

II.  WO»KS. 

LAOTGAN  (B.  K) :  Eccles.  Hist,  of  Ireland  (1829),  II.  263  sqq. 
MONTALEMBEBT:  Monks  ofthe  West,  II.  397  sqfl. 
PH.  HEBER:  Die  vor&arolingischen  Gfaitbenshelden  am  Skein,  1867. 
LtJTOLF  (B.  0.):  Die  Qlaubensboten  der  Schweiz  vor  St.  Oallus.    Luzern, 

1871. 

EBRARD:  Die  iroschotti&che  Missions&ircke  (1873),  pp.  25-31;  284r-340. 
KlLLEN:  Ecclesiast.  Hist,  of  Ireland  (1875),  1. 41  sqq. 
W.  SMITH  and  H.  WACE:  Diet.  Christ.  Biography  (1877),  I  605-607. 
G.  HERTEL:  Ueber  des  heil.  Columba  Leben  und  Wirben,  besonders  seme 

KIosterregeL    In  the  "  Zeitschrift  far  hist.  Theol.,"  1875,  p.  396; 

and  another  article  in  Brieger's  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengesch.," 

1879,  p.  145. 

While  the  Latin  Benedictine  monks  worked  their  way  up 
from  the  South  towards  the  heart  of  France,  Keltic  missionaries 
carried  their  independent  Christianitjr  from  the  West  to  the 
North  of  E^rance,  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  Switzerland  and  Lorn- 

1  The  brotherhood  of  St.  Manr  was  founded  in  1618,  and  numbered  such 
scholars  as  Mabillon,  Montfaucon,  and  Buinart, 

1  The  legendary  history  of  monasticism  under  the  Merovingians  is  well  told 
by  Montalembert,  II.  236-386. 


2  23.  COLUMBANUS  AND  THE  1EISH  MISSIONAEIES       85 

bardy;  but  they  were  counteracted  by  Eoman  missionaries,  who 
at  last  secured  the  control  over  France  and  Germany  as  well  as 
over  the  British  Isles. 

ST.  CoLUMBAETJS1  is  the  pioneer  of  the  Irish  missionaries  to 
the  Continent.  His  life  has  been  wrkten  with  great  minuteness 
by  Jonas,  a  monk  of  his  monastery  at  Bobbio.  He  was  born  in 
Leinster,  A.D.  543,  in  which  year  St.  Benedict,  his  celebrated 
monastic  predecessor,  died  at  Monte  Casino,  and  was  trained  in 
the  monastery  of  Bangor,  on  the  coast  of  Down,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  St.  Comgall.  Filled  with  missionary  zeal,  he  left  his 
native  land  with  twelve  companions,  and  crossed  over  the  sea  to 
Gaul  in  590,2  or  in  585,8  several  years  before  Augustin  landed 
in  England.  He  found  the  country  desolated  by  war;  Christian 
virtue  and  discipline  were  almost  extinct.  He  travelled  for 
several  years,  preaching  and  giving  an  example  of  humility  and 
charity.  He  lived  for  whole  weeks  without  other  food  than 
herbs  and  wild  berries.  He  liked  best  the  solitude  of  the  woods 
and  caves,  where  even  the  animals  obeyed  his  voice  and  received 
his  caresses.  In  Burgundy  he  was  kindly  received  by  King 
Gontran,  one  of  the  grandsons  of  Clovis;  refused  the  offer  of 
wealth,  and  chose  a  quiet  retreat  in  the  Vosges  mountains,  first 
in  a  ruined  Eoman  fort  at  Annegray,  and  afterwards  at  Luxeuil 
(Luxovium).  Here  he  established  a  celebrated  monastery  on  the 
confines  of  Burgundy  and  Austrasia.  A  similar  institution  he 
founded  at  Fontaines.  Several  hundred  disciples  gathered 
around  him.  Luxeuil  became  the  monastic  capital  of  Gaul,  a 
nursery  of  bishops  and  saints,  and  the  mother  of  similar  insti- 
tutions. 

1  Also  called  Columba  the  younger,  to  distinguish.  him  from  the  Scotch  Co- 
lumba.  There  is  a  second  St.  Columbanus,  an  abbot  of  St  Trudo  (St  Troud) 
in  France,  and  a  poet,  who  died  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century. 

3  The  date  assigned  by  Hertel,  I  c.,  and  Meyer  yon  Knonau,  in  "AUg.  Deutsche 
3iograpbie>>  IV.  424(1876). 

8  The  date  according  to  the  Bollandists  and  Smith's  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biogr. 
Ebrard  puts  the  emigration  of  Columbanus  to  Gaul  in  the  year  594. 


86  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

Columbanus  drew  up  a  monastic  rule,  which  in  all  essential 
points  resembles  the  more  famous  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  but  is 
shorter  and  more  severe.  It  divides  the  time  of  the  monks  be- 
tween ascetic  exercises  and  useful  agricultural  labor,  and  enjoins 
absolute  obedience  on  severe  penalties.  It  was  afterwards  super- 
seded by  the  Benedictine  rule,  which  had  the  advantage  of  the 
papal  sanction  and  patronage.1 

The  life  of  Columbanus  in  France  was  embittered  and  his 
authority  weakened  by  his  controversy  with  the  French  clergy 
and  the  court  of  Burgundy.  He  adhered  tenaciously  to  the 
Irish  usage  of  computing  Easter,  the  Irish  tonsure  and  costume- 
Besides,  his  extreme  severity  of  life  was  a  standing  rebuke  of 
the  worldly  priesthood  and  dissolute  court.  He  was  summoned 
before  a  synod  in  602  or  603,  and  defended  himself  in  a  letter 
with  great  freedom  and  eloquence,  and  with  a  singular  mixture 
of  humility  and  pride*  He  calls  himself  (like  St.  Patrick) 
"  Columbanus,  a  sinner/7  but  speaks  with  an  air  of  authority. 
He  pleads  that  he  is  not  the  originator  of  those  ritual  differences, 
that  he  came  to  France,  a  poor  stranger,  for  the  cause  of  Christ, 
and  asks  nothing  but  to  be  permitted  to  live  in  silence  in  the 
depth  of  the  forests  near  the  'bones  of  his  seventeen  brethren, 
whom  he  had  already  seen  die.  "Ah!  let  us  live  with  you  in 
this  Gaul,  where  we  now  are,  since  we  are  destined  to  live  with 
each  other  in  heaven,  if  we  are  found  worthy  to  enter  there." 
The  letter  is  mixed  with  rebukes  of  the  bishops,  calculations  of 
Easter  and  an  array  of  Scripture  quotations.  At  the  same  time 
he  wrote  several  letters  to  Pope  Gregory  L,  one  of  which  only 
is  preserved  in  the  writings  of  Columbanus.  There  is  no  record 
of  the  action  of  the  Synod  on  this  controversy,  nor  of  any  answer 
of  the  Pope. 

1  There  is  a  considerable  difference  between  his  Reguk,  Monastic®,  in  ten 
chapters,  and  his  Eegula  Omobiolis  Fratrum,  me  Liber  de  quotidianis  Pcenitentwk 
Jfemocftonim,  in  fifteen  chapters.  The  latter  is  unreasonably  rigorous,  and  im- 
poses corporal  punishments  for  the  slightest  offences,  even  speaking  at  table, 
or  coughing  at  chanting.  Ebrard  (L  c.,  p.  148  sqq.)  contends  that  the  JRegufa 
Ctenobialis,  which  is  found  only  in  two  codices,  is  of  later  origin.  Oomp.  Her* 


g  23.  COLUMBANUS  AND  THE  IEISH  MISSIOSTABIES.       87 

The  conflict  with  the  court  of  Burgundy  is  highly  honorable 
to  Columbanus,  and  resulted  in  his  banishment.  He  reproved 
by  word  and  writing  the  tyranny  of  queen  Brunehild  (or  Brune- 
hauld)  and  the  profligacy  of  her  grandson  Theodoric  (or  Thierry 
II.) ;  he  refused  to  bless  his  illegitimate  children  and  even  threat- 
ened to  excommunicate  the  young  king.  He  could  not  be 
silenced  by  flattery  and  gifts,  and  was  first  sent  as  a  prisoner  to 
Besangon,  and  then  expelled  from  the  kingdom  in  610.1 

But  this  persecution  extended  his  usefulness.  We  find  him 
next,  with  his  Irish  friends  who  accompanied  him,  on  the  lake 
.of  Zurich,  then  in  Bregenz  (Bregentium)  on  the  lake  of  Con- 
stance, planting  the  seeds  of  Christianity  in  those  charming 
regions  of  German  Switzerland.  His  preaching  was  accompanied 
by  burning  the  heathen  idols.  Leaving  his  disciple  St.  Gall  at 
Bregenz,  he  crossed  the  Alps  to  Lombardy,  and  founded  a  famous 
monastery  at  Bobbio.  He  manfully  fought  there  the  Arian 
heresy,  but  in  a  letter  to  Boniface  IV.  he  defended  the  cause  of 
Nestorius,  as  condemned  by  the  Fifth  General  Council  of  553, 
and  called  upon  the  Pope  to  vindicate  the  church  of  Eome  against 
the  charge  of  heresy.  He  speaks  very  boldly  to  the  Pope,  but 
acknowledges  Eome  to  be  "  the  head  of  the  churches  of  the  whole 
world,  excepting  only  the  singular  prerogative  of  the  place  of 
the  Lord's  resurrection  "  (Jerusalem).2  He  died  in  Bobbio,  Nov. 
21,  615.  The  poetry  of  grateful  love  and  superstitious  faith  has 
adorned  his  simple  life  with  various  miracles. 

Columbanus  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning  for  his  age. 
He  seems  to  have  had  even  some  knowledge  of  Greek  and  He- 
brew. His  chief  works  are  his  Eegula  Monastica,  in  ten  short 
chapters;  seventeen  Discourses;  his  Epistles  to  the  Gallic  Synod 
on  the  paschal  controversy,  to  Gregory  I.,  and  to  Boniface  IV.; 
and  a  few  poems.  The  following  characteristic  specimen  of  his 
ascetic  view  of  life  is  from  one  of  the  discourses:  "O  mortal 

1  For  a  full  account  of  this  quarrel  see  Montalembert,  II.  411  sqq. 
9  "  &oma  orbis  terrarum  caput  est  ecdesiarum,  sdva  loci  Dominica  resurrectionis 
nngulaari  prcerogatwa." 


88  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

life!  how  many  hast  thou  deceived,  seduced,  and  blinded !  Thou 
fliest  and  art  nothing;  thou  appearest  and  art  but  a  shade;  thou 
risest  and  art  but  a  vapor;  thou  fliest  every  day,  and  every  day 
thou  comest;  thou  fliest  in  coming,  and  comest  in  flying,  the 
same  at  the  point  of  departure,  different  at  the  end;  sweet  to  the 
foolish,  bitter  to  the  wise.  ,  Those  who  love  thee  know  thee  not, 
and  those  only  know  thee  who  despise  thee.  What  art  thou, 
then,  O  human  life?  Thou  art  the  way  of  mortals,  and  not  their 
life.  Thou  beginncst  in  sin  and  endcst  in  death.  Thou  art 
then  the  way  of  life  and  not  life  itself.  Thou  art  only  a  road, 
and  an  unequal  road,  long  for  some,  short  for  others;  wide  for 
these,  narrow  for  those;  joyous  for  some,  sad  for  others,  but  for 
all  equally  rapid  and  without  return.  It  is  necessary,  then,  O 
miserable  human  life!  to  fathom  thee,  to  question  thee,  but  not 
to  trust  in  thee.  We  must  traverse  thee  without  dwelling  in 
thee — no  one  dwells  upon  a  great  road;  we  but  march  over  it, 
to  reach  the  country  beyond." l 

Several  of  the  disciples  of  Columbanus  labored  in  eastern  Hel- 
vetia and  Khaetia. 

SIGISBEBT  separated  from  him  at  the  foot  of  the  St.  Gtotihard, 
crossed  eastward  over  the  Oberalp  to  the  source  of  the  Khine, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  monastery  of  Dissentis  in  the 
Grisons,  which  lasts  to  this  day. 

ST.  GAXL  (Gallus),  the  most  celebrated  of  tihe  pupils  of  Co- 
lumbanus, remained  in  Switzerland,  and  became  the  father  of 
the  monastery  and  city  called  after  him,  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Steinach.  He  declined  the  bishopric  of  Constanz.  His 
double  struggle  against  the  forces  of  nature  and  the  gods  of  hea- 
thenism has  been  embellished  with  marvelous  traits  by  the  legen- 
dary poetry  of  the  middle  ages.*  When  he  died,  ninety-five 

1  Montalembert,  II.  436. 

*  See  the  anonymous  Vita,  8.  Qatti  in  Pertz,  Monumenta,  IL  123,  and  in  the 
Aeto,  Sonet.,  Tom.  VH.  Octobiis.  Also  Greith,  OesMkte  for  altirMen  Kirche . . 
ok  EinlettungindieGe8ch.de8StiftaSt.  Gotten  (1857),  the  chapter  on  Gallus,  pp. 
333  sqq. 


?24.  GERMAN  MISSIONARIES  BEFORE  BONIFACE.        89 

years  old,  A.D.  640,  the  whole  surrounding  country  of  the 
Allemanni  was  nominally  christianized.  The  monastery  of  St. 
Gall  became  one  of  the  most  celebrated  schools  of  learning  in 
Switzerland  and  Germany,  where  Irish  and  other  missionaries 
learned  German  and  prepared  themselves  for  evangelistic  work 
in  Switzerland  and  Southern  Germany.  There  Notker  Balbu- 
lus,  the  abbot  (died  912),  gave  a  lasting  impulse  to  sacred 
poetry  and  music,  as  the  inventor  or  chief  promoter  of  the  medie- 
val Laudes  or  Pros&j  among  which  the  famous  u  Media  vita  in 
morte  sumus  "  still  repeats  in  various  tongues  its  solemn  funeral 
warning  throughout  Christendom. 

FKIDOLD  or  FRIDOLIN,  who  probably  came  from  Scotland, 
preached  the  gospel  to  the  Allemanni  in  South  Germany.  But 
his  life  is  involved  in  great  obscurity,  and  assigned  by  some  to 
the  time  of  Clovis  I.  (481-511),  by  others  more  probably  to 
that  of  Clovis  II.  (638-656). 

KILIAN  or  KYLLIJSTA,  of  a  noble  Irish  family,  i*  said  to  have 
been  the  apostle  of  Franconia  and  the  first  bishop  of  Wurzburg 
in  the  seventh  century. 

§  24.  German  Missionaries  before  Boniface. 

England  derived  its  Anglo-Saxon  population  from  Germany 
in  the  fifth  century,  and  in  return  gave  to  Germany  in  the 
eighth  century  the  Christian  religion  with  a  strong  infusion  of 
popery.  Germany  afterwards  shook  off  the  yoke  of  popery,  and 
gave  to  England  the  Protestant  Reformation.  In  the  seventeenth 
century,  England  produced  Deism,  which  was  the  first  act  of 
modern  unbelief,  and  the  forerunner  of  German  Kationalism. 
The  revival  of  evangelical  theology  and  religion  which  followed 
in  both  countries,  established  new  points  of  contact  between 
these  cognate  races,  which  meet  again  on  common  ground  in  the 
Western  hemisphere  to  commingle  in  the  American  nationality. 

The  conversion  of  Germany  to  Christianity  and  to  Komanism 
was,  like  that  of  England,  the  slow  work  of  several  centuries. 
It  -was  accomplished  by  missionaries  of  different  nationalities, 


90  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

French,  Scotch-Irish,  English,  and  Greek.  It  began  at  the 
close  of  the  second  century,  when  Irenaeus  spoke  of  Christian 
congregations  in  the  two  Germanies,1  i.  e.  Germania  prima  and 
secunda,  on  the  upper  and  lower  Rhine;  and  it  was  substantially 
completed  in  the  age  of  Charlemagne  in  the  eighth  century. 
But  nearly  the  entire  North-Eastern  part  of  Germany,  which  was 
inhabited  mostly  by  Slavonic  tribes,  remained  heathen  till  the 
eleventh  and  thirteenth  centuries* 

We  must  distinguish  especially  three  stages:  1)  the  prepara- 
tory labors  of  Italian,  French,  and  Scotch-Irish  missionaries;  2) 
the  consolidating  romanizing  work  of  Boniface  of  England  and 
his  successors;  3)  the  forcible  military  conversion  of  the  Saxons 
under  Charlemagne.  The  fourth  and  last  missionary  stage,  the 
conversion  of  the  Prussians  and  Slavonic  races  in  JSTorth-Eastern 
Germany,  belongs  to  the  next  period. 

The  light  of  Christianity  came  to  Germany  first  from  the 
Roman  empire  in  the  Roman  colonies  on  the  Rhine.  At  the 
council  of  Aries  in  314,  there  was  a  bishop  Matemus  of  Cologne 
with  his  deacon,  Macrinus,  and  a  bishop  of  Treves  by  the  name 
ofAgrocius. 

In  the  fifth  century  the  mysterious  SEVBBINUS  from  the 
East  appeared  among  the  savages  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  in 
Bavaria  as  an  angel  of  mercy,  walking  bare-footed  in  mid-winter, 
redeeming  prisoners  of  war,  bringing  food  and  clothing  with  the 
comfort  of  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  and  won  by 
his  self-denying  labors  universal  esteem.  French  monks  and 
hermits  left  traces  of  their  work  at  St.  Goar,  St.  Elig,  Wul- 
fech,  and  other  places  on  the  charming  banks  of  the  Rhine* 
The  efficient  labors  of  COLTJMBAKTUS  and  his  Irish  companions 
and  pupils  extended  from  the  Vosges  to  South  Germany  and 
Eastern  Switzerland.  WILLEBBORD,  an  Anglo-Saxon,  brought 
up  in  an  Irish  convent,  left  with  twelve  brethren  for  Holland 
(690),  became  the  Apostle  of  the  Friesians,  and  was  consecrated 

1  alb  rate  Teppaviax  Upvfrfvat  tK&w'iai.     Adv.  Juer.  1. 10,  2. 


g  24  GEEMAN  MISSIONAEIES  BEFORE  BONIFACE.        91 

by  the  Pope  the  first  bishop  of  Utrecht  (Trajectum),  under  the 
name  of  Clemens.  He  developed  an  extensive  activity  of  nearly 
fifty  years  till  his  death  (739). 

When  Boniface  arrived  in  Germany  he  found  nearly  in  all 
parts  which  he  visited,  especially  in  Bavaria  and  Thuringia, 
missionaries  and  bishops  independent  of  Kome,  and  his  object 
was  fully  as  much  to  romanize  this  earlier  Christianity  as  to 
convert  the  heathen.  He  transferred  the  conflict  between  the 
Anglo-Saxon  mission  of  Kome  and  the  older  Keltic  Christianity 
of  Patrick  and  Columba  and  their  successors  from  England  to 
German  soil,  and  repeated  the  role  of  Augustin  of  Canterbury. 
The  old  Easter  controversy  disappears  after  Columbanus,  and 
the  chief  objects  of  dispute  were  freedom  from  popery  and  cleri- 
cal marriage.  In  both  respects,  Boniface  succeeded,  after  a  hard 
struggle,  in  romanizing  Germany. 

The  leaders  of  the  opposition  to  Kome  and  to  Bonifacius 
among  his  predecessors  and  contemporaries  were  ADELBERT  and 
CLEMENS.  We  know  them  only  from  the  letters  of  Boniface, 
which  represent  them  in  a  very  unfavorable  light.  Adelbert, 
or  Aldebert  (Eldebert),  was  a  Gaul  by  nation,  and  perhaps 
bishop  of  Soissons ;  at  all  events  he  labored  on  the  French  side 
of  the  Rhine,  had  received  episcopal  ordination,  and  enjoyed 
great  popularity  from  his  preaching,  being  regarded  as  an  apostle, 
a  patron,  and  a  worker  of  mirades.  According  to  Boniface,  he 
was  a  second  Simon  Magus,  or  immoral  impostor,  who  deceived 
the  people  by  false  miracles  and  relics,  claimed  equal  rank  with 
the  apostles,  set  up  crosses  and  oratories  in  the  fields,  consecrated 
buildings  in  his  own  name,  led  women  astray,  and  boasted  to 
have  relics  better  than  those  of  Kome,  and  brought  to  him  by 
an  angel  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Clemens  was  a  Scotchman 
(Irishman),  and  labored  in  East  Franconia.  He  opposed  eccle- 
siastical traditions  and  clerical  celibacy,  and  had  two  sons.  He 
held  marriage  with  a  brother's  widow  to  be  valid,  and  had  pecu- 
liar views  of  divine  predestination  and  Christ's  descent  into 
Hades.  Aldebert  and  Clemens  were  condemned  without  a 


92  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

hearing,  and  excommunicated  as  heretics  and  seducers  of  the 
people,  by  a  provincial  Synod  of  Soissons,  A.D.  744,  and 
again  in  a  Synod  of  Home,  745,  by  Pope  Zacharias,  who  con- 
firmed the  decision  of  Boniface.  Aldebert  was  at  last  imprisoned 
in  the  monastery  of  Fulda,  and  killed  by  shepherds  after 
escaping  from  prison.  Clemens  disappeared.1 

§  25.  Boniface,  the  Apostle  of  Germany. 

L  BONIFACIUS  :  Epistolce  et  Sermones,  first  ed.  by  Serrarius,  Mogunt.  1605, 
then  by  Wurdtwein,  1790,  by  Giles,  1842,  and  in  Migne's  Patrol  Tom. 
89,  pp.  593-801  (together  with  Vite,  etc.).  JAFFE:  Jfonumenfa  Mo- 
guntina.  Berol.  1866. 

II.  Biographies  of  Boni&cius.  The  oldest  by  WILLIBALD,  his  pupil 
and  companion  (in  Pertz,  Monum.  II-  33,  and  in  Migne,  L  c.  p.  603) ; 
by  OTHLO,  a  German  Benedictine  monk  of  the  eleventh  cent,  (in 
Migne,  p.  634) ;  LETZNER  (1602) ;  LOFFLER  (1812);  SEITERS  (1845); 
Cox  (1853);  X  P.  DULLER  (1870);  HOPE  (1872);  Aw  WEBSTER 
Bonif acius  und  die  Romanmrwig  von  Mittekuropa.  Leipz.,  1875 ; 
PFAHLER(Eegenab.  1880) ;  OTTO  FISCHER  (Leipz.  1881);  EBRARD: 
Bonif.  der  Zerstorer  des  columbanischen,  Klrchenthums  auf  dem  Fe$t- 
lande  (Gutersloh,  1882;  against  Fischer  and  very  unjust  to  B.;  see 
against  itZ5pFFELm  the"  TheoL  Lit  Zeitg/7 1882,  No.  22).  C£  the 
respective  sections  in  NEASTDER,  GFRORER,  KETTBEKG  (II.  307 
sqq.) 

On  the  councils  of  Bonif.  see  HEFELE  :  Cbntiliengeschichtc,  III*  458. 

BONIFACE  or  WiNPRiED2  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  on 
the  German  mission-field  by  the  extent  and  result  of  his  labors, 
and  acquired  the  name  of  the  Apostle  of  Germany.  He  was 
born  about  680  from  a  noble  family  at  Kirton  in  Wessex, 
the  last  stronghold  of  paganism  among  the  Anglo-Saxon  king- 
doms* He  was  brought  up  in  the  convent  of  Nutsal  near  Win- 
chester, and  ordained  priest  at  the  age  of  thirty.  He  felt  it  his 
duty  to  christianize  those  countries  from  which  his  Anglo-Saxon 

1  Camp,  besides  the  Letters  of  Boniface,  the  works  of  Neander,  Kettbei& 
Ebraid,  Werner  and  Fischer,  quoted  below. 

a  One  that  wins  peace.  His  Latin  name  Bonifedus,  Benefoctor,  was  probably 
his  monastic  name,  or  given  to  him  by  the  Pope  on  MB  aeoond  Tint  to 


225.  BONIFACE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  GERMANY.  93 

forefathers  had  emigrated.  It  was  a  formidable  task,  requiring 
a  heroic  courage  and  indomitable  perseverance. 

He  sacrificed  his  splendid  prospects  at  home,  crossed  the  chan- 
nel, and  began  his  missionary  career  with  two  or  three  compa- 
nions among  the  Friesians  in  the  neighborhood  of  Utrecht  in 
Holland  (715).  His  first  attempt  was  a  failure*  Batbod,  the 
king  of  Friesland,  was  at  war  with  Charles  Martel,  and  devas- 
tated the  churches  and  monasteries  which  had  been  founded  by 
the  Franks,  and  by  Willibrord. 

But  far  from  being  discouraged,  he  was  only  stimulated  to 
greater  exertion.  After  a  brief  sojourn  in  England,  where  he 
was  offered  the  dignity  of  abbot  of  his  convent,  he  left  again  his 
native  land,  and  this  time  forever.  He  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Rome,  was  cordially  welcomed  by  Pope  Gregory  II.  and  received 
a  general  commission  to  christianize  and  romanize  central  Europe 
(718).  Kecrossing  the  Alps,  he  visited  Bavaria  and  Thuringia, 
which  had  been  evangelized  in  part  by  the  disciples  of  Oolumban, 
but  he  was  coldly  received  because  he  represented  their  Chris- 
tianity as  insufficient,  and  required  submission  to  Borne.  He 
turned  his  steps  again  to  Friesland  where  order  had  been  restored, 
and  assisted  Willibrord,  archbishop  of  Utrecht^  for  three  years. 
In  722  he  returned  to  Thuringia  in  the  wake  of  Charles  MarteFs 
victorious  army  and  preached  to  the  heathen  in  Hesse  who  lived 
between  the  Franks  and  the  Saxons,  between  the  middle  Rhine 
and  the  Elbe.  He  founded  a  convent  at  Amanaburg  (Amone- 
burg)  on  the  river  Ohm. 

In  723  he  paid,  on  invitation,  a  second  visit  to  Borne,  and  was 
consecrated  by  Gregory  II.  as  a  missionary  bishop  without  a  dio- 
cese (episcopus  regionarius).  He  bound  himself  on  the  grave  of 
St.  Peter  with  the  most  stringent  oath  of  fealty  to  the  Pope  similar 
to  that  which  was  imposed  on  the  Italian  or  suburban  bishops.1 

1  The  juramentum  of  Boniface,  which  he  ever  afterwards  remembered  and 
observed  with  painful  conscientiousness,  deserves  to  be  quoted  in  full,  as  it  con- 
tains his  whole  missionary  policy  (see  Migne,  I  c.,  p.  809): 

"In  nvmne  Domini  Dei  Sdvatoris  nostri  Jew  ChrM,  imperante  domino  LOOM 


94  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

From  this  time  his  work  assumed  a  more  systematic  character 
in  the  closest  contact  with  Rome  as  the  centre  of  Christendom. 
Fortified  with  letters  of  commendation,  he  attached  himself  for  a 
short  time  to  the  court  of  Charles  Martel,  who  pushed  his  schemes 
of  conquest  towards  the  Hessians.  Aided  by  this  secular  help 
and  the  Pope's  spiritual  authority,  he  made  rapid  progress.  By 
a  master  stroke  of  missionary  policy  he  laid  the  axe  to  the  root 
of  Teutonic  heathenism;  with  his  own  hand,  in  the  presence  of 
a  vast  assembly,  he  cut  down  the  sacred  and  inviolable  oak  of* 
the  Thunder-God  at  Geismar  (not  far  from  Fritzlar),  and  built 
with  the  planks  an  oratory  or  church  of  St.  Peter.  His  biog- 
rapher, Willibald,  adds  that  a  sudden  storm  from  heaven  came 
to  his  aid  and  split  ttie  oak  in  four  pieces  of  equal  length.  This 
practical  sermon  was  the  death  and  burial  of  German  mythology. 
He  received  from  time  to  time  supplies  of  books,  monks  and 
nuns  from  England.  The  whole  church  of  England  took  a  deep 

Magno  imperatore,  anno  7  post  consutotwn  ejus,  sed  et  Cowtantini  Magni  imperatoris 
ejus  Jttii  anno  4,  indictime  6.  Promitto  ego  Bonifawu*,  Dei  gratia  episcopus,  tibij 
keate  Petre,  apostoforum  princeps,  wcanbgue  tuo  beato  Gregorio  jpopce,  et  wccmo- 
ribus  ejust  per  Pafirem  et  Fttium,  et  Spiritum  Sanctum,  Trinitatem,  inseparabikm,  et 
hoc  socrafeimum  corpus  tuum,  me  omnem  fid  an  et  puritatem  sanctce  fidti  catholicce 
exMbere,  et  in  unifate  ejusdemfidei,  Deo  operantc,  pcryistere  in  qua  omnis  Chwtian- 
orum  solus  esse  sine  dubio  comprobatur,  nullo  modo  me  contra,  mftatcm  communis  et 


atque  conwrsuan,  tiki  et  utttitatibus  twB  Ecclesice,  cui  a  Domino  Deo  potwtas  tigandi 
solvendiqw  data  est,  et  prosdkto  vicario  tuo  atque  succcworibus  ejus,  per  omnia  eM> 
b&re.  Sed  et  si  cognovero  antistites  contra  imtitiUa  (uitlqua  sanctorum  Patrum  con- 
v&rsarij  cum  eis  nuUam  Jwbere  communionem  ant  <mjunctionwn ;  sed  magis,  si 
vduero  prohibere,  prohibeom ;  siminw,  hoc  fiddiftr  statim  Domino  meo  a/po$tolico 
renuntiabo.  Quod  si,  quod  absit,  contra  hujus  prqfwsionis  me®  sericm  diquidfacere 
quolibet  modo,  seu  ingenio,  vd  occasione,  tentaioero,  rem  inventor  in  csfarno  judicio, 
vUionem  Awmia  et  SapMrcs  incurrom,  gui  wrbk  drum  de  rebus  proprm  fraudem, 
facere  proBSumpsit :  hoc  autem  indiculum  saoramcnti  ego  Sonifaeius  exiguus  episco- 
pus  manu  propria,  scripsi,  atgue  ponens  supra  sawaiissvmwm  corpus  sancti  Petn\  itfi 
ut  prcwcriptum,  Deo  teste  et  judice,  fed  sawamentwn,  quod  et  conaewwe  prwnjtto" 
With  all  Ms  devotion  to  the  Boman  See,  Boniface  waa  manly  and  independent 
enough  to  complain  in  a  letter  to  Pope  Zacharias  of  the  scandalous  heathen 
practices  in  Rome  which  were  reported  by  travellers  and  filled  the  German 
Christians  with  prejudice  and  disobedience  to  Borne,  See  the  letter  in  Migne, 
I  c.  p.  746  sqq. 


§25.  BONIFACE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  GERMANY.  95 

interest  in  his  work,  as  we  learn  from  his  correspondence.  He 
founded  monastic  colonies  near  Erfurt,  Fritzlar,  Ohrdruf,  Bisch- 
ofsheim,  and  Homburg.  The  victory  of  Charles  Martel  over  the 
Saracens  at  Tours  (732)  checked  the  westward  progress  of  Islam 
and  insured  the  triumph  of  Christianity  in  central  Europe. 

Boniface  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  archbishop  (without  a 
see)  and  papal  legate  by  the  new  Pope  Gregory  III.  (732),  and 
thus  enabled  to  coerce  the  refractory  bishops. 

In  738  he  made  his  third  and  last  pilgrimage  to  Eome  with  a 
great  retinue  of  monks  and  converts,  and  received  authority  to 
call  a  synod  of  bishops  in  Bavaria  and  Allemannia.  On  his  return 
he  founded,  in  concert  with  Duke  Odilo,  four  Bavarian  bishop- 
rics at  Salzburg,  Freising,  Passau,  and  Ratisbon  or  Eegensburg 
(739).  To  these  he  added  in  central  Germany  the  sees  of  Wurz- 
burg,  Buraburg  (near  Fritzlar),  Erfurt,  Eichstadt  (742).  He 
held  several  synods  in  Mainz  and  elsewhere  for  the  organization 
of  the  churches  and  the  exercise  of  discipline.  The  number  of 
bis  baptized  converts  till  739  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  many 
thousands. 

In  743  he  was  installed  Archbishop  of  Mainz  or  Mayence 
(Moguntum)  in  the  place  of  bishop  Gervillius  (Gewielieb)  who 
was  deposed  for  indulging  in  sporting  propensities  and  for  homi- 
cide in  battle.  His  diocese  extended  from  Cologne  to  Strasburg 
and  even  to  Coire.  He  would  have  preferred  Cologne,  but  the 
clergy  there  feared  his  disciplinary  severity.  He  aided  the  sons 
of  Charles  Martel  in  reducing  the  Gallic  clergy  to  obedience, 
exterminating  the  Keltic  element,  and  consolidating  the  union 
with  Rome. 

In  744,  in  a  council  at  Soissons,  where  twenty-three  bishops 
were  present,  his  most  energetic  opponents  were  condemned. 
In  the  same  year,  in  the  very  heart  of  Germany,  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  Fulda,  the  greatest  of  his  monasteries,  which  be- 
came the  Monte  Casino  of  Germany. 

In  753  he  named  Lull  or  Lullus  his  successor  at  Mainz. 
Laying  aside  his  dignities,  he  became  once  more  an  humble 


96  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.B.  590-1049. 

missionary,  and  returned  with  about  fifty  devoted  followers  to 
the  field  of  the  baffled  labors  of  his  youth  among  the  Friesians, 
where  a  reaction  in  favor  of  heathenism  had  taken  place  since 
the  death  of  Willibrord.  He  planted  his  tents  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  Borne  near  Dockmn  (between  Franecker  and  Gronin- 
gen),  waiting  for  a  large  number  of  converts  to  be  confirmed. 
But,  instead  of  that,  he  was  assailed  and  slain,  with  his  compa- 
nions., by  armed  pagans.  He  met  the  martyr's  death  with  calm- 
ness and  resignation,  June  5,  754  or  755.  His  bones  were 
deposited  first  at  Utrecht,  then  at  Mainz,  and  at  last  in  Pulda. 
Soon  after  his  death,  an  English  synod  chose  him,  together  with 
Pope  Gregory  and  Augustin,  patron  of  the  English  church. 
In  1875  Pope  Pius  IX.  directed  the  Catholics  of  Germany  and 
England  to  invoke  especially  the  aid  of  St.  Boniface  in  the  dis- 
tress of  modern  times. 

The  works  of  Boniface  are  epistles  and  sermons.  The  former 
refer  to  his  missionary  labors  and  policy,  the  latter  exhibit  his 
theological  views  and  practical  piety.  Fifteen  short  sermons 
are  preserved,  addressed  not  to  heathen,  but  to  Christian  con- 
verts; they  reveal  therefore  not  so  much  his  missionary  as  his 
edifying  activity.  They  are  without  Scripture  text,  and  are 
either  festal  discourses  explaining  the  history  of  salvation,  espe- 
cially the  fall  and  redemption  of  man,  or  catechetical  expositions 
of  Christian  doctrine  and  duty.  We  give  as  a  characteristic 
specimen  of  the  latter,  the  fifteenth  sermon,  on  the  renunciation 
of  the  devil  in  baptism: 

SERMON  XV. 

"L  Listen,  my  brethren,  and  consider  well  what  you  have  solemnly 
renounced  in  your  baptism.  You  have  renounced  the  devil  and  all  his 
works,  and  all  his  pomp.  But  what  are  the  works  of  the  devil?  They 
are  pride,  idolatry,  envy,  murder,  calumny,  lying,  perjury,  hatred,  forni- 
cation, adultery,  every  kind  of  lewdness,  theft,  false  witness,  robbery, 
gluttony,  drunkenness,  slander,  fight,  malice,  philters,  incantations,  lots, 
belief  in  witches  and  were-wolves,  abortion,  disobedience  to  the  Master, 
amulets.  These  and  other  such  evil  things  are  the  works  of  the  devil, 
all  of  which  you  have  forsworn  by  your  baptism,  as  the  Apostle  says: 


2  25.  BONIFACE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  GERMANY.  97 

Whosoever  doeth  such  things  deserves  death,  and  shall  not  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  But  as  we  believe  that,  hy  the  mercy  of  God,  you  will 
renounce  all  these  things,  with  heart  and  hand,  in  order  to  hecome  fit  for 
grace,  I  admonish  you,  my  dearest  brethren,  to  remember  what  you  have 
promised  Almighty  God. 

II.  For,  first,  you  have  promised  to  believe  in  Almighty  God,  and  in 
his  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  one  almighty  God  in  perfect 
trinity. 

III.  And  these  are  the  commandments  which  you  shall  keep  and  fdl- 
fil:  to  love  God,  whom  you  profess,  with  all  your  heart,  all  your  soul, 
and  all  your  strength,  and  to  love  your  neighbor  as  yourselves;  for  on 
these  commandments  hang  the  whole  law  and  the  prophets.    Be  pa- 
tient, have  mercy,  be  benevolent,  chaste,  pure.    Teach  your  sons  to  fear 
God;  teach  your  whole  family  to  do  so.    Make  peace  where  you  go,  and 
let  him  who  sits  in  court,  give  a  just  verdict  and  take  no  presents,  for 
presents  make  even  a  wise  man  blind. 

IV.  Keep  the  Sabbath  and  go  to  church— to  pray,  but  not  to  prattle* 
Give  alms  according  to  your  power,  for  alms  extinguish  sins  as  water 
does  fire.     Show  hospitality  to  travelers,  visit  the  sick,  take  care  of 
widows  and  orphans,  pay  your  tithes  to  the  church,  and  do  to  nobody 
what  you  would  not  have  done  to  yourselfc    Fear  God  above  alL    Let 
the  servants  be  obedient  to  their  masters,  and  the  masters  just  to  their 
servants.    Cling  to  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed,  and  communicate 
them  to  your  own  children  and  to  those  whose  baptismal  sponsors  you 
are.    Keep  the  feat,  love  what  is  right,  stand  up  against  the  devil,  and 
partake  from  time  to  time  of  the  Lord's  Supper.    Such  are  the  works 
which  God  commands  you  to  do  and  fulfil. 

V.  Believe  in  the  advent  of  Christ,  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
and  the  judgment  of  all  men.    For  then  the  impious  shall  be  sepa* 
rated  from  the  just,  the  one  for  the  everlasting  fire,  the  others  for  the 
eternal  life.    Then  begins  a  life  with  God  without  death,  a  light  without 
shadows,  a  health  without  sickness,  a  plenty  without  hunger,  a  happiness 
without  fear,  a  joy  with  no  misgivings.    Then  comes  the  eternal  glory, 
in  which  the  just  shall  shine  like  suns,  for  no  eye  has  ever  seen,  no  ear 
has  ever  heard,  no  heart  has  ever  dreamed,  of  all  that  which  God  has 
prepared  for  those  whom  he  loves. 

VI.  I  also  remind  you,  my  beloved  brethren,  that  the  birth-day  of  our 
Lord  is  approaching,  in  order  that  you  may  abstain  from  all  that  is 
worldly  or  lewd  or  impure  or  bad.    Spit  out  all  malice  and  hatred  and 
envy;  it  is  poison  to  your  heart.    Keep  chaste  even  with  respect  to  your 
own  wives.  Clothe  yourselves  with  good  works.  Give  alms  to  the  poor  who 
belong  to  Christ;  invite  them  often  to  your  feasts.    Keep  peace  with  all, 
and  make  peace  between  those  who  are  at  discord.    If,  with  the  aid  of 
Christ,  you  will  truly  fulfil  these  commands,  then  in  this  life  you  can 


98  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

with  confidence  approach  the  altar  of  God,  and  in  the  next  you  shall 
partake  of  the  everlasting  bliss," l 

Bonifacius  combined  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  a  missionary 
with  worldly  prudence  and  a  fare  genius  for  organization  and 
administration.  He  was  no  profound  scholar,  but  a  practical 
statesman  and  a  strict  disciplinarian.  He  was  not  a  theologian, 
but  an  ecclesiastic,  and  would  have  made  a  good  Pope.  He 
selected  the  best  situations  for  his  bishoprics  and  monasteries, 
and  his  far-sighted  policy  has  been  confirmed  by  history.  He 
was  a  man  of  unblemished  character  and  untiring  energy.  He 
was  incessantly  active,  preaching,  traveling,  presiding  over 
Synods,  deciding  perplexing  questions  about  heathcu  customs 
and  trivial  ceremonies.  He  wrought  no  miracles,  such  as  were 
usually  expected  from  a  missionary  in  those  days.  His  disciple 
and  biographer  apologizes  for  this  defect,  and  appeals  as  an  off- 
set to  the  invisible  cures  of  souls  which  he  performed.2 

The  weak  spot  in  his  character  is  the  bigotry  and  intolerance 
which  he  displayed  in  his  controversy  with  the  independent 
missionaries  of  the  French  and  Scotch-Irish  schools  who  had 
done  the  pioneer  work  before  him.  He  reaped  the  fruits  of  their 
labors,  and  destroyed  their  further  usefulness,  which  he  might 
have  secured  by  a  liberal  Christian  policy.  He  hated  every 
feature  of  individuality  and  national  independence  in  matters  of 
the  church.  To  him  true  Christianity  was  identical  with 
Romanism,  and  he  made  Germany  as  loyal  to  the  Pope  as  was 
his  native  England.  He  served  under  four  Popes,  Gregory  II., 
Gregory  III.,  Zacharias,  and  Stephen,  and  they  could  not  have 
had  a  more  devoted  and  faithful  agent.  Those  who  labored  with- 
out papal  authority  were  to  him  dangerous  hirelings,  thieves  and 
robbers  who  climbed  up  some  other  way.  He  denounced  them 
as  false  prophets,  seducers  of  the  people,  idolaters  and  adulterers 

1  In  Migne,  1  c.,  p.  870.  A  German  translation  in  Cruel,  Qeachichte  der 
deutschen  Predigt  im  Mitteldter  (1879),  p.  14. 

4  Ofolo,  VUa  Bonif.,  c.  26  (Migne,  I  c.  fol.  664). 


i  25.  BONIFACE,  THE  APOSTLE  OP  GEBMAKT.  99 

(because  they  were  married  and  defended  clerical  marriage).1  He 
encountered  from  them  a  most  determined  opposition,  especially 
in  Bavaria.  In  connection  with  his  servile  Romanism  is  his 
pedantic  legalism  and  ceremonialism.  His  epistles  and  sermons 
show  a  considerable  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  but  also  a  contracted 
legalistic  spirit.  He  has  much  to  say  about  matters  of  outward 
conformity  to  Roman  authority  and  usages  and  about  small  ques- 
tions of  casuistry  such  as  whether  it  was  right  to  eat  horse  flesh, 
rabbits,  storks,  meat  offered  to  idols,  to  many  a  widow  after 
standing  god-father  to  her  son,  how  often  the  sign  of  the  cross 
should  be  made  in  preaching.  In  his  strength  and  his  weak- 
ness, his  loyaliy  to  Rome,  and  in  the  importance  of  the  work 
he  accomplished,  he  resembled  Augustin,  the  Roman  apostle  of 
his  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors. 

Boniface  succeeded  by  indomitable  perseverance,  and  his  work 
survived  him.  This  must  be  his  vindication.  In  judging  of 
him  we  should  remember  that  the  controversy  between  Mm  and 
his  French  and  Scotch-Irish  opponents  was  not  a  controversy 
between  Catholicism  and  evangelical  Protestantism  (which  was 
not  yet  born),  but  between  organized  Catholicism  or  Romanism 
and  independent  Catholicism.  Mediaeval  Christianity  was  very 
weak,  and  required  for  its  self-preservation  a  strong  central  power 
and  legal  discipline.  It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the  barbarous 
condition  of  those  times,  and  amid  the  commotions  of  almost 
constant  civil  wars,  the  independent  and  scattered  labors  of  the 
anti-Roman  missionaries  could  have  survived  as  well  and  made 
as  strong  an  impression  upon  the  German  nation  as  a  consoli- 
dated Christianity  with  a  common  centre  of  unity  and  authority. 

1  The  description  he  gives  of  their  immorality  must  be  taken  with  considerable 
deduction.  In  Ep.  49  to  Pope  Zacharias  (A.  D.  742)  in  Migne,  I  c.,  p.  745, 
he  speaks  of  deacons,  priests  and  bishops  hostile  to  Borne,  as  being  guilty  of 
habitual  drunkenness,  concubinage,  and  even  polygamy.  I  will  only  quote 
what  he  says  of  the  bishops :  "  JEfc  iwemwrdur  guidam  inter  eos  episeopi,  grit,  licet 
di&mt  sefwmcarios  vel  adult&ros  non  esse,  sed  sunt  ebriosi,  et  injwrwsi,  vdvenatores, 
et  quipugrumtw,  exerwto  armati,  et  effundunt  propria  manu  sangwnem  fwmwwn, 
rive  pagcmorum,  woe  Christianorwn." 


100  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Roman  unity  was  better  than  undisciplined  independency,  but  it 
was  itself  only  a  preparatory  school  for  the  self-governing  free- 
dom of  manhood. 

After  Boniface  had  nearly  completed  his  work,  a  political 
revolution  took  place  in  France  which  gave  it  outward  support. 
Pepin,  the  major  domus  of  the  corrupt  Merovingian  dynasty, 
overthrew  it  with  the  aid  of  Pope  Zacharias,  who  for  his  conquest 
of  the  troublesome  Lombards  rewarded  him  with  the  royal  crown 
of  France  (753).  Fifty  years  afterwards  this  political  alliance 
of  France  and  Germany  with  the  Italian  papacy  was  completed 
by  Charlemagne  and  Leo  III.,  and  lasted  for  many  centuries. 
Rome  had  the  enchantment  of  distance,  the  prestige  of  power 
and  culture,  and  promised  to  furnish  the  strongest  support  to 
new  and  weak  churches.  Rome  was  also  the  connecting  link 
between  mediaeval  and  ancient  civilization,  and  transmitted  to 
the  barbarian  races  the  treasures  of  classical  literature  which  in 
due  time  led  to  the  revival  of  letters  and  to  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation. 

§  26.   The  Pwpfk  of  Boniface. 
WiOS>cM9  Gregory  of  Utrecht,  Stwrm  of  FuMa. 

Boniface  left  behind  him  a  number  of  devoted  disciples  who 
carried  on  his  work. 

Among  these  we  mention  St.  WnxiBAJJD,  flic  first  bishop  of 
Eichstadt.  He  was  born  about  A  JX  700  from  a  noble  Anglo-Saxon 
family  and  a  near  relative  of  Boniface.  In  his  early  manhood 
he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  and  to  the  Holy  Land  as  far  as 
Damascus,  spent  several  years  among  the  Benedictines  in  Monte 
Casino,  met  Boniface  in  Rome,  joined  him  in  Germany  (A.  D. 
740)  and  became  bishop  of  Eichstadt  in  Bavaria  in  742.  He 
directed  his  attention  chiefly  to  the  founding  of  monasteries  after 
the  Benedictine  rule*  He  called  to  his  side  his  brother  Wunne- 
bald,  his  sister  Walpurgis,  and  other  helpers  from  England.  He 
died  July  7,  781  or  787.  He  is  considered  by  some  as  the  author 


g  26.  THE  PUPILS  OF  BONIFACE.  101 

of  the  biography  of  Boniface;  but  it  was  probably  the  work 
of  another  Willibald,  a  presbyter  of  Mainz. 

GREGORY,  Abbot  of  Utrecht,  was  related  to  the  royal  house  of 
the  Merovingians,  educated  at  the  court,  converted  in  his  fifteenth 
year  by  a  sermon  of  Boniface,  And  accompanied  him  on  his  jour- 
neys. After  the  death  of  Boniface  he  superintended  the  mission 
among  the  Friesians,  but  declined  the  episcopal  dignity.  In  his  old 
age  he  became  lame,  and  was  carried  by  his  pupils  to  wherever 
his  presence  was  desired.  He  died  in  781,  seventy-three  years  old. 
STURM,  the  first  Abbot  of  Fulda  (710  to  Dec.  17,  779),  was  of 
a  noble  Bavarian  family  and  educated  by  Boniface.  With  his 
approval  he  passed  with  two  companions  through  the  dense  beech 
forests  of  Hesse  in  pursuit  of  a  proper  place  for  a  monastery. 
Singing  psalms,  he  rode  on  an  ass,  cutting  a  way  through  the 
thicket  inhabited  by  wild  beasts;  at  night  after  saying  his 
prayers  and  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  he  slept  on  the  bare 
ground  under  the  canopy  of  heaven  till  sunrise.  He  met  no 
human  being  except  a  troupe  of  heathen  slaves  who  bathed  in 
the  river  Fulda,  and  afterwards  a  man  with  a  horse  who  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  country.  He  found  at  last  a  suitable 
place,  and  took  solemn  possession  of  it  in  744,  after  it  was  pre- 
sented to  him.  for  a  monastery  by  Karloman  at  the  request  of 
Boniface,  who  joined  him  there  with  a  large  number  of  monks, 
and  often  resorted  to  this  his  favorite  monastery.  "In  a  vast 
solitude,"  he  wrote  to  Pope  Zacharias  in  751,  "  among  the  tribes 
entrusted  to  my  preaching,  there  is  a  place  where  I  erected  a 
convent  and  peopled  it  with  monks  who  live  according  to  the 
rule  of  St.  Benedict  in  strict  abstinence,  without  flesh  and  wine, 
without  intoxicating  drink  and  slaves,  earning  their  living  with 
their  own  hands.  This  spot  I  have  rightfully  secured  from 
pious  men,  especially  from  Karloman,  the  late  prince  of  the 
Franks,  and  dedicated  to  the  Saviour.  There  I  will  occasionally 
rest  my  weary  limbs,  and  repose  in  death,  continuing  faithful  to 
the  Roman  Church  and  to  the  people  to  which  I  "was  sent?"1 
1  Condensed  translation  from  Epist.  75  in  Migne,  fol.  778. 


102  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

Fulda  received  special  privileges  from  Pope  Zacharias  and  his 
successors,1  and  became  a  centre  of  German  Christianity  and 
civilization  from  which  proceeded  the  clearing  of  the  forests,  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  the  education  of  youths.  The  number 
of  Benedictine  monks  was  increased  by  large  re-enforcements 
from  Monte  Casino,  after  an  Italian  journey  of  Sturm  in  747. 
The  later  years  of  his  life  were  disturbed  by  a  controversy  with 
Lullus  of  Mainz  about  the  bones  of  Boniface  after  his  martyrdom 
(755)  and  by  calumniations  of  three  monks  who  brought  upon 
him  the  displeasure  of  King  Pepin.  He  was,  however,  reinstated 
in  his  dignity  and  received  the  remains  of  his  beloved  teacher 
which  repose  in  Fulda.  Charlemagne  employed  him  as  mis- 
sionary among  the  Saxons,  His  bones  were  deposited  in  the 
convent  church.  Pope  Innocent  II.  canonized  him,  A.  IX 
1139.2 

§  27.  The  Conversion  of  (he  Saxons.     Charlemagne  and  Alcuin* 
The  Hdiand,  cmd  the  Gospd-Harmvny. 


:  Die  Unterwerfimg  der  Sdchsen  unter  Karl  dem  Or.  1883. 
A.  SOHAUMANN":  Gesehiekte  des  niedersdchs.  Volfas.    GStting.  1839. 
BOTTOER:  Die  Einfuhrung  des  Christenthums  in  Sachsen.    Hann.  1859. 
W.  GIESEBBECHT;  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Eaiserzeit,  Vol.  L  (1863),  pp. 
110  sqq. 

Of  all  the  German  tribes  the  fierce  and  warlike  Saxons  were 
tihe  last  to  accept  the  Christian  religion.  They  differed  in  this 
respect  very  much  from  their  kinsmen  who  had  invaded  and 
conquered  England.  But  the  means  employed  were  also  as 
different:  rude  force  in  one  case,  moral  suasion  in  the  otiher. 
The  Saxons  inhabited  the  districts  of  modern  Hanover,  Olden- 
burg, Brunswick,  and  Westphalia,  which  were  covered  witiht  dense 
forests.  They  had  driven  the  Franks  beyond  the  Weser  and  the 
Khine,  and  they  were  now  driven  back  in  turn  by  Charles  Mar- 

1  See  "Fulda  und  seine  Privilegien"  in  Jul.  Harttung,  Diplomatisch-hwtomche 
Farsclamgen,  Gotha,  1879,  pp.  193  sqq. 

9  The  chief  source  is  the  Vita  Sturmi  by  his  pupil  Eigil,  abbot  of  Fulda,  818 
to  822,  in  MabiUon,  "Ada  Sand.  Ord.  Bened."  Saec.  VEL  Tom.  242-259. 


§  27.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  SAXONS.  10 

tel,  Pepin,  and  Charlemagne.  They  hated  the  foreign  yoke  o 
the  Franks,  and  far-off  Rome;  they  hated  the  tithe  which  W£ 
imposed  upon  them  for  the  support  of  the  church.  They  looke 
upon  Christianity  as  the  enemy  of  their  wild  liberty  and  ind( 
pendence.  The  first  efforts  of  Ewald,  Suidbert,  and  other  mis 
sionaries  were  fruitless.  Their  conversion  was  at  last  brougt 
about  by  the  sword  from  political  as  well  as  religious  motive 
and  was  at  first  merely  nominal,  but  resulted  finally  in  a  res 
change  under  the  silent  influence  of  the  moral  forces  of  the  Chris 
tian  religion. 

Charlemagne,  who  became  master  of  the  French  kingdom  i 
768,  had  the  noble  ambition  to  unite  the  German  tribes  in  on 
great  empire  and  one  religion  in  filial  communion  with  Roim 
but  he  mistook  the  means.  He  employed  material  force,  believin 
that  people  become  Christians  by  water-baptism,  though  baptize 
against  their  will.  He  thought  that  the  Saxons,  who  were  th 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  his  kingdom,  must  be  either  subdue 
and  christianized,  or  killed.  He  pursued  the  same  policy  tow 
ards  them  as  the  squatter  sovereigns  would  have  the  Unite< 
States  government  pursue  towards  the  wild  Indians  in  the  West 
ern  territories.  Treaties  were  broken,  and  shocking  crueltie 
were  committed  on  both  sides,  by  the  Saxons  from  revenge  an< 
for  independence,  by  Christians  for  punishment  in  the  name  01 
religion  and  civilization.  Prominent  among  these  atrocities  i 
the  massacre  of  four  thousand  five  hundred  captives  at  Verde 
in  one  day.  As  soon  as  the  French  army  was  gone,  the  Saxon 
destroyed  the  churches  and  murdered  the  priests,  for  which  the; 
were  in  torn  put  to  death. 

Their  subjugation  was  a  work  of  thirty-three  years,  from  77' 
to  805.  Widukind  (Wittekind)  and  Albio  (Abbio),  the  tw 
most  powerful  Saxon  chiefs,  seeing  the  fruitlessness  of  the  resist 
ance,  submitted  to  baptism  in  785,  with  Charlemagne  as  sponsor, 

1 « Jetet  wr  Sachsen,  bextegt,"  says  Giesebreclit  (L  c.,  p.  117),  «wd  mtt  Eh* 
geaetesn  vwrden  das  aWsfcn^w  tin^  <*w -Ko^Atm  wgleteh,  den  Saehsen  aufgt 
drungen.  M&  Jbdeatfwfenwirde  die  Twfe  enarmge^  die  heidnisehen  Gdrcwch 


104  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

But  the  Saxons  were  not  entirely  defeated  till  804,  when  10,000 
families  were  driven  from  house  and  home  and  scattered  in  other 
provinces.  Bloody  laws  prohibited  the  relapse  into  heathenism. 
The  spirit  of  national  independence  was  defeated,  but  not  entirely 
crushed,  and  broke  out  seven  centuries  afterwards  in  another 
form  against  the  Babylonian  tyranny  of  Borne  under  the  lead  of 
the  Saxon  monk,  Martin  Luther. 

The  war  of  Charlemagne  against  the  Saxons  was  the  first  omi- 
nous example  of  a  bloody  crusade  for  the  overthrow  of  heathenism 
and  the  extension  of  the  church.  It  was  a  radical  departure  from 
the  apostolic  method,  and  diametrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel.  This  was  felt  even  in  that  age  by  the  more  enlight- 
ened divines.  Alcuin,  who  represents  the  English  school  of  mis- 
sionaries, and  who  expresses  in  his  letters  great  respect  and 
admiration  for  Charlemagne,  modestly  protested,  though  without 
effect,  against  this  wholesale  conversion  by  force,  and  asked  him 
rather  to  make  peace  with  the  "abominable  "  people  of  the  Sax- 
ons. He  properly  held  that  the  heathen  should  first  be  instructed 
before  they  are  required  to  be  baptized  and  to  pay  tithes ;  that 
water-baptism  without  faith  was  of  no  use;  that  baptism  implies 
three  visible  things,  namely,  the  priest,  the  body,  and  the  water, 
and  three  invisible  things,  namely,  iihe  Spirit,  the  soul,  and  faith; 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  regenerates  the  soul  by  faith;  that  faith  is  a 
free  act  which  cannot  be  enforced;  that  instruction,  persuasion, 
love  and  self-denial  are  the  only  proper  means  for  converting  the 
heathen.1 

bedrokt;  jede  Verktzung  eines  chnsdichen  Priesters  wurde,  we  der  Aufruhr  gegen 
den  Koniy  und  dear  Ungehorsam  gegen  seine  HefeJde,  m  einem  todeswurdigen  Ver- 
trechen,  gestempdt" 

1  Neander  III.  152  sqq.  (Germ.  ed. ;  Torrey's  transL  IIL  76).  It  seems  to  me^ 
from  looking  over  Alcuin's  numerous  epistles  to  the  emperor,  he  might  have  used 
his  influence  much  more  freely  with  his  pupil.  Merivale  says  (p.  131) ;  "Alcuin 
of  York,  exerted  his  influence  upon  those  Northern  missions  from  the  centre  of 
France,  in  which  he  had  planted  himself.  The  purity  and  simplicity  of  the 
English  school  of  teachers  contrasted  favorably  with  the  worldly  character  of 
the  FranMsh  priesthood,  and  Charlemagne  himself  was  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  intrusting  the  establishment  of  the  Church  throughout  his  North* 


2  27.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  SAXONS.  105 

Charlemagne  relaxed  somewhat  the  severity  of  his  laws  or 
capitularies  after  the  year  797.  He  founded  eight  bishoprics 
among  the  Saxons:  Osnabnick,  Miinster,  Minden,  Paderborn, 
Verden,  Bremen,  Hildesheim,  and  Halberstadt.  From  these 
bishoprics  and  the  parochial  churches  grouped  around  them,  and 
from  monasteries  such  as  Fulda,  proceeded  those  higher  and 
nobler  influences  which  acted  on  the  mind  and  heart 

The  first  monument  of  real  Christianity  among  the  Saxons  is 
the  "Heliand"  (Heiland,  i.  e.,  Healer,  Saviour)  or  a  harmony 
of  the  Gospels.  It  is  a  religious  epos  strongly  resembling  the 
older  work  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Csedmon  on  the  Passion  and 
Resurrection.  From  this  it  no  doubt  derived  its  inspiration. 
For  since  Bonifacius  there  was  a  lively  intercourse  between  the 
church  of  England  and  the  church  in  Germany,  and  the  language 
of  the  two  countries  was  at  that  time  essentially  the  same.  In 
both  works  Christ  appears  as  the  youthful  hero  of  the  human 
race,  the  divine  conqueror  of  the  world  and  the  devil,  and  the 
Christians  as  his  faithful  knights  and  warriors.  The  Heliand 
was  composed  in  the  ninth  century  by  one  or  more  poets  whose 
language  points  to  Westphalia  as  their  home.  The  doctrine  is 
free  from  the  worship  of  saints,  the  glorification  of  Peter,  and 
from  ascetic  excesses,  but  mixed  somewhat  with  mythological 

era  conquests  to  these  foreigners  rather  than  to  his  own  subjects.  He  appointed 
the  Anglo-Saxon  "Willibrord  to  preside  over  the  district  of  Estphalia,  and  Liud- 
ger,  a  Friesian  by  birth,  but  an  Englishman  by  his  training  at  York,  to  organize 
the  church  in  Westphalia;  while  he  left  to  the  earlier  foundation  of  Fulda, 
which  had  also  received  its  first  Christian  traditions  from  the  English  Boniface 
and  his  pupil  Sturm,  the  charge  of  Engern  or  Angara.  From  the  teaching  of 
these  strangers  there  sprang  up  a  crop  of  Saxon  priests  and  missionaries;  from 
among  the  youths  of  noble  family  whom  the  conqueror  had  carried  off  from 
their  homes  as  hostages,  many  were  selected  to  be  trained  in  the  monasteries  for 
the  life  of  monks  and  preachers.  Eventually  the  Abbey  of  Corbie,  near  Ami- 
ens, was  founded  by  one  of  the  Saxon  converts,  and  became  an  important  centre 
of  Christian  teaching.  From  hence  sprang  the  daughter-foundation  of  the  New 
Corbie,  or  Corby,  on  the  banks  of  the  Weser,  in  the  diocese  of  Paderborn.  This 
abbey  received  its  charter  from  Louis  le  Debonnaire  in  823,  and  became  no  less 
important  an  institution  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  in  the  north  of  Ger- 
many, than  Fulda  still  continued  to  be  in  the  centre,  and  St.  Gall  in  the  South.'7 


106  FOUETH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

reminiscences.  Vilniar  calls  it  the  only  real  Christian  epos,  and 
a  wonderful  creation  of  the  German  genius.1 

A  little  later  (about  870)  Otfried,  a  Franconian,  educated  at 
Fulda  and  St.  Gall,  produced  another  poetic  harmony  of  the 
Gospels,  which  is  one  of  the  chief  monuments  of  old  high  Ger- 
man literature.  It  is  a  life  of  Christ  from  his  birth  to  the  ascen- 
sion, and  ends  with  a  description  of  the  judgment.  It  consists 
of  fifteen  thousand  rhymed  lines  in  strophes  of  four  lines. 

Thus  the  victory  of  Christianity  in  Germany  as  well  as  in 
England,  was  the  beginning  of  poetry  and  literature,  and  of  true 
civilization. 

The  Christianization  of  North-Eastern  Germany,  among  the 
Slavonic  races,  along  the  Baltic  shores  in  Prussia,  Livonia,  and 
Courland,  went  on  in  the  next  period,  chiefly  through  Bishop 
Otto  of  Bamberg,  the  apostle  of  Pomerania,  and  the  Knights  of 
the  Teutonic  order,  and  was  completed  in  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries* 


in.  THE  CONVEBSION  OF  SCANDINAVIA. 

General  Literature. 

I.  Scandinavia  before  Christianity. 

The  EDDAS,  edit.  Mask  (Copenhagen,  1818);  A.  Munch  (Christiania, 
1847);  Mobiua  (Leipzig,  1860). 

KT.  M.  PETEBSEN:  Danmarfo  Htetorie  i  Sedenold.  Copenhagen,  1834-87, 
3  vols.;  Den  Nordis&e  Mythokgie,  Copenhagen,  1889. 

N.  F.  S.  GBUNDTVTO:  Nordens  Mythologie.    Copenhagen,  1839. 

B.  THOKPE:  Northern  Mythology.    London,  1852,  3  vols. 

RASMUS  B.  ANDERSON:  Norse  Mythology;  Myths  of  the  JEdda*  systematized 
and  interpreted.    Chicago,  1875. 
IE.  The  Christianization  of  Scandinavia. 

CLAUDIUS  (Extra JALM:  Hi&toria  Sueonum  Gothorumyue  JScclesfo.  Stock- 
holm, 1689,  4  vols. 

E.  POOTOPPIDABT:  Annettes  EccM®  2><mic&,    Copenhagen,  1741. 

F.  MASTER:  Zirchengeschichte  von  Danemarfc  w&  Norwtgen.    Copen- 

hagen and  Leipzig,  1823-33,  3  vols. 

lSeeEd.Sievew,J2«ZMm<2.    Halle,  1878. 


3  28.  SCANDINAVIAN  HEATHENISM.  107 

H.  KEUTEKDAHL:  Svenska  kyrkans  hisforia.  Lund,  1833,  3  vols.,  first 
volume  translated  into  German  by  E.  T.  Mayerhof,  under  the  title: 
Leben  Ansgars. 

FRED.  HELWEG:  Den  Danske  Kirkes  Histone.    Copenhagen,  1862. 

A.  JORGEJSBEBT:  Den  nordiske  Kirkes  Grundlceggelse.    Copenhagen,  1874. 

NEANDER:  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Kirche,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  1-150. 

§  28.  Scandinavian  Heathenism. 

WHEATODST  :  History  of  the  Northmen.    London,  1831. 

DEPPING:  Histoire  des  expeditions  maritimes  des  Normands.    Paris,  1843. 

2  vols. 
F.  WOKSAAE:  Account  of  the  Danes  in  England,  Ireland,  and  j&otland. 

London,  1852;  The  Danish  Conquest  of  England   and  Normandy. 

London,  1863.    These  works  are  translated  from  the  Danish. 

Scandinavia  was  inhabited  by  one  of  the  wildest  and  fiercest, 
but  also  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  valiant  branches  of  the 
Teutonic  race,  a  people  of  robbers  which  grew  into  a  people  of 
conquerors.  Speaking  the  same  language — that  which  is  still 
spoken  in  Iceland — and  worshipping  the  same  gods,  they  were 
split  into  a  number  of  small  kingdoms  covering  the  present 
Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway.  Every  spring,  when  the  ice 
broke  in  the  fjords,  they  launched  their  boats  or  skiffs,  and 
swept,  each  swarm  under  the  leadership  of  its  own  king,  down 
upon  the  coasts  of  the  neighboring  countries.  By  the  rivers 
they  penetrated  far  into  the  countries,  burning  and  destroying 
what  they  could  not  carry  away  with  them.  When  autumn 
came,  they  returned  home,  loaded  with  spoil,  and  they  spent  the 
winter  round  the  open  hearth,  devouring  their  prey.  But  in 
course  of  time,  the  swarms  congregated  and  formed  large  armies, 
and  the  robber-campaigns  became  organized  expeditions  for 
conquest;  kingdoms  were  founded  in  Russia,  England,  Usance, 
and  Sicily.  In  their  new  homes,  however,  the  Northern  vikings 
soon  forgot  both  their  native  language  and  their  old  gods,  and 
became  the  strong  bearers  of  new  departures  of  civilization  and 
the  valiant  knights  of  CSbristianity. 

In  the  Scandinavian  mythology,  there  were  not  a  few  ideas 


108  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

which  the  Christian  missionary  could  use  as  connecting  links. 
It  was  not  absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  begin  with  a  mere 
negation;  here,  too,  there  was  an  " unknown  God/'  and  many 
traits  indicate  that,  during  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  people 
throughout  Scandinavia  became  more  and  more  anxious  to  hear 
something  about  him.  AVhen  a  man  died,  he  went  to  Walhall, 
if  he  had  been  brave,  and  to  Niflheim,  if  he  had  been  a  coward. 
In  Walhail  he  lived  together  with  the  gods,  in  great  brightness 
and  joy,  fighting  all  the  day,  feasting  all  the  night.  In  Niflheim 
he  sat  alone,  a  shadow,  surrounded  with  everything  disgusting 
and  degrading.  But  Walhall  and  Niflheim  were  not  to  hist 
forever.  A  deep  darkness,  Ragnarokr,  shall  fall  over  the  uni- 
verse; Walhail  and  Niflheim  shall  be  destroyed  by  fire;  the 
gods,  the  heroes,  the  shadows,  shall  perish.  Then  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth  shall  be  created  by  the  All-Father,  and  he  shall 
judge  men  not  according  as  they  have  been  brave  or  cowardly,  but 
according  as  they  have  been  good  or  baxl.  From  the  Eddas  them- 
selves, it  appears  that,  throughout  Scandinavian  heathendom, 
there  now  and  then  arose  characters  who,  though  they  would 
not  cease  to  be  brave,  longed  to  be  good.  The  representative  of 
this  goodness,  this  dim  fore-shadowing  of  the  Christian  idea  of 
holiness,  was  Baldur,  the  young  god  standing  on  the  rainbow 
and  watching  the  worlds,  and  he  was  also  the  link  which  held 
together  the  whole  chain  of  the  Walhail  gods;  when  he  died, 
Bagnarokr  came. 

A  transition  from  the  myth  of  Baldur  to  the  gospel  of  Christ 
cannot  have  been  very  diiucult  to  the  Scandinavian  imagination; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  apparent  that  the  first  ideas  which  the  Scandi- 
navian heathens  formed  of  the  "White  Christ"  were  influenced 
by  their  ideas  of  Baldur.  It  is  a  question,  however,  not  yet  set- 
tled, whether  certain  parts  of  the  Scandinavian  mythology,  as, 
for  instance,  the  above  myths  of  Kagnarokr  and  Baldur,  are 
not  a  reflex  of  Christian  ideas;  and  it  is  quite  probable  that 
when  the  Scandinavians  in  the  ninth  century  began  to  look 
at  Christ  under  the  image  of  Baldur,  they  had  long  before 


\  28.  SCANDINAVIAN  HEATHENISM.  109 

unconsciously  remodeled  their  idea  of  Baldur  after  the  image  of 
Christ. 

Another  point,  of  considerable  importance  to  the  Christian 
missionary,  was  that,  in  Scandinavian  heathendom,  he  had  no 
priesthood  to  encounter.  Scandinavian  paganism  never  became 
an  institution.  There  were  temples,  or  at  least  altars,  at  Leire, 
near  Koeskilde,  in  Denmark;  at  Sigtuna,  near  Upsall,  in  Swe- 
den, and  at  Moere,  near  Drontheim,  in  Norway;  and  huge  sacri- 
fices of  ninety-nine  horses,  ninety-nine  cocks,  and  ninety-nine 
slaves  were  offered  up  there  every  Juul-time.  But  every  man 
was  his  own  priest.  At  the  time  when  Christianity  first  appeared 
in  Scandinavia,  the  old  religion  was  evidently  losing  its  hold  on 
the  individuals,  and  for  the  very  reason,  that  it  had  never  suc- 
ceeded in  laying  hold  on  the  nation.  People  continued  to  swear 
by  the  gods,  and  drink  in  their  honor;  but  they  ceased  to  pray 
to  them.  They  continued  to  sacrifice  before  taking  the  field  or 
after  the  victory,  and  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross,  meaning 
Thor's  hammer,  over  a  child  when  it  was  named;  but  there 
was  really  nothing  in  their  life,  national  or  individual,  public  or 
private,  which  demanded  religious  consecration.  As,  on  the  one 
side,  characters  developed  which  actually  went  beyond  the  estab- 
lished religion,  longing  for  something  higher  and  deeper,  it  was, 
on  the  other  side,  still  more  frequent  to  meet  with  characters 
which  passed  by  the  established  religion  with  utter  indifference, 
believing  in  nothing  but  their  own  strength. 

The  principal  obstacle  which  Christianity  had  to  encounter  in 
Scandinavia  was  moral  rather  than  religious.  In  his  passions, 
the  old  Scandinavian  was  sometimes  worse  than  a  beast.  Glut- 
tony and  drunkenness  he  considered  as  accomplishments.  But 
he  was  chaste.  A  dishonored  woman  was  very  seldom  heard  of, 
adultery  never.  In  his  energy,  he  was  sometimes  fiercer  than  a 
demon.  He  destroyed  for  the  sake  of  destruction,  and  there 
were  no  indignities  or  cruelties  which  he  would  not  inflict  upon 
a  vanquished  enemy.  But  for  his  friend,  his  king,  his  wife,  his 
child,  lie  would  sacrifice  everything,  even  life  itself;  and  he 


110  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

would  do  it  without  a  doubt,  without  a  pang,  iri  pure  and  noble 
enthusiasm.  Such,  however,  as  his  morals  were,  they  had  abso- 
lute sway  over  him.  The  gods  he  could  forget,  but  not  his 
duties.  The  evil  one,  among  gods  and  men,  was  he  who  saw 
the  duty,  but  stole  away  from  it.  The  highest  spiritual  power 
among  the  old  Scandinavians,  their  only  enthusnism,  was  their 
feeling  of  duty;  but  the  direction  which  had  been  given  to  this 
feeling  was  so  absolutely  opposed  to  that  pointed  out  by  the 
Christian  morality,  that  no  reconciliation  was  possible.  Revenge 
was  the  noblest  sentiment  and  passion  of  man;  forgiveness  was 
a  sin.  The  battle-field  reeking  with  blood  and  fire  was  the 
highest  beauty  the  earth  could  show;  patient  and  peaceful  labor 
was  an  abomination.  It  was  quite  natural,  therefore,  that  the 
actual  conflict  between  Christianity  and  Scandinavian  paganism 
should  take  place  in  the  field  of  morals.  The  pagans  slew  the 
missionaries,  and  burnt  their  schools  and  churches,  not  because 
they  preached  new  gods,  but  because  they  "corrupted  the  morals 
of  the  people "  (by  averting  them  from  their  warlike  pursuits), 
and  when,  after  a  contest  of  more  than  a  century,  it  became 
apparent  that  Christianity  would  be  victorious,  the  pagan  heroes 
left  the  country  in  great  swarms,  as  if  they  were  flying  from 
some  awful  plague.  The  first  and  hardest  work  which  Chris- 
tianity had  to  do  in  Scandinavia  was  generally  humanitarian 
rather  than  specifically  religious. 

§  29.  The  Christianization  of  Denmark.    St.  Awgar. 

ANSGARITTS:  Pigmenta,  ed.  Lappenberg.  Hamburg,  1844.  Vita  Wtte- 
hadi,  in  Perte :  Monwnenta  II. ;  and  in  Migne :  Patrol.  Tom.  118,  pp. 
1014-1051. 

BIMBEBTXTS:  Vtto>  Ansgwii,  in  Pertz;  Monumenta  IL,  and  in  Migne,  L  c+ 
pp.  961-1011. 

ADAMUS  BREMENSIS  (d.  1076) :  Oesta  Hamenburgewis  Eccl  Pontificum 
(embracing  the  history  of  the  archbishopric  of  Hamburg,  of  Scandi- 
navia, Denmark,  and  Northwestern  Germany,  from  788-1072); 
reprinted  in  P&rtz:*  Monumenta,  VII.;  separate  edition 
berg.  Hanover,  1846. 

LAUBENT:  Ltben  der  Erzb.  Ansgar  und  Rimbert.    1856. 

A.  TAPPEHORN:  Leben  d.  h.  Ansgar.   1863. 


2  29.  THE  CHRISTIANIZATION  OF  DENMAKK.          Ill 

G.  DEHIO:  Geschickte  d.  Erzb.  ITamburg-jBremen.    1877. 
H.  N.  A.  JENSEN:  ficktesmg-JTolsteinische  JZirchengeschichte,  edit.  A.  L. 
J.  Michelsen  (1879). 

During  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  the  Danes  first  came 
in  contact  with  Christianity,  partly  through  their  commercial 
intercourse  with  Duerstede  in  Holland,  partly  through  their  per- 
petual raids  on  Ireland;  and  tales  of  the  "White  Christ "  were 
frequently  told  among  them,  though  probably  with  no  other 
effect  than  that  of  wonder.  The  first  Christian  missionary  who 
visited  them  and  worked  among  them  was  Willebrord.  Born 
in  Northumbria  and  educated  within  the  pale  of  the  Keltic 
Bark  he  went  out,  in  690,  as  a  missionary  to  the  Frises.  Expel- 
leJ  by  them  he  came,  about  700,  to  Denmark,  was  well  received 
by  king  Yngrin  (Ogendus),  formed  a  congregation  and  bought 
thirty  Danish  boys,  whom  he  educated  in  the  Christian  religion, 
and  of  whom  one,  Sigwald,  is  still  remembered  as  the  patron 
saint  of  Nuremberg,  St.  Sebaldus.  But  his  work  seems  to  have 
been  of  merely  temporary  effect. 

Soon,  however,  the  tremendous  activity  which  Charlemagne 
developed  as  a  political  organizer,  was  felt  even  on  the  Danish 
frontier.  His  realm  touched  the  Eyder.  Political  relations 
sprang  up  between  the  Roman  empire  and  Denmark,  and  they 
opened  a  freer  and  broader  entrance  to  the  Christian  missionaries. 
In  JEssehoe,  in  Holstein,  Charlemagne  built  a  chapel  for  the  use 
of  the  garrison ;  in  Hamburg  he  settled  Heridock  as  the  head  of 
a  Christian  congregation;  and  from  a  passage  in  one  of  Alcuin's 
letters1  it  appears  that  a  conversion  of  the  Danes  did  not  lie  alto- 
gether outside  of  his  plans.  Under  his  successor,  Lewis  the 
Pious,  Harald  Klak,  one  of  the  many  petty  kings  among  whom 
Denmark  was  then  divided,  sought  the  emperor's  support  and 
decision  in  a  family  feud,  and  Lewis  sent  archbishop  Ebo  of 
Kheims,  celebrated  both  as  a  political  negotiator  and  as  a  zeal- 
ous missionary,  to  Denmark.  In  822  Ebo  crossed  the  Eyder, 

in  Monwmenta  Akwinicma,  Ed.  Jaffe. 


112  FOURTH  PEB1OD.    A.  D.  590-1049* 

accompanied  by  bishop  Halitgar  of  Cambray.  In  the  following 
years  he  made  several  journeys  to  Denmark,  preached,  baptized, 
and  established  a  station  of  the  Danish  mission  at  Cella  Wellana, 
the  present  Welnau,  near  Esschoe.  But  he  was  too  much  occu- 
pied with  the  internal  aflairs  of  the  empire  and  the  opportunity 
which  now  opened  for  the  Danish  mission,  demanded  the  whole 
and  undivided  energy  of  a  great  man.  In  826  I  larald  Klak  was 
expelled  and  sought  refuge  with  the  emperor,  JEbo  acting  as  a 
mediator.  At  Ingelheim,  near  Mcnte,  the  king,  the  queen,  their 
son  and  their  whole  retinue,  were  solemnly  baptized,  and  when 
Harald  shortly  after  returned  to  Denmark  with  support  from 
the  emperor,  he  was  accompanied  by  that  man  who  was  destined 
to  become  the  Apostle  of  the  North,  Ansgar. 

ANSGAB  was  born  about  800  (according  to  general  acceptation 
Sept.  9,  801)  in  the  diocese  of  Amiens,  of  Frankish  parents,  and 
educated  in  the  abbey  of  Corbie,  under  the  guidance  of  Adalhard. 
Paschasius  Badbertus  was  among  his  teachers.  In  822  a  mis- 
sionary colony  was  planted  by  Corbie  in  Westphalia,  and  the 
German  monastery  of  Corwey  or  New  Corwey  waa  founded. 
Hither  Ansgar  was  removed,  as  teacher  in  the  new  school,  and 
he  soon  acquired  great  fame  both  on  account  of  his  powers  as  a 
preacher  and  on  account  of  his  ardent  piety.  When  still  a 
boy  he  had  holy  visions,  and  was  deeply  impressed  with  the 
vanity  of  all  earthly  greatness.  The  crown  of  the  martyr  seemed 
to  him  the  highest  grace  which  human  life  could  attain,  and  he 
ardently  prayed  that  it  might  be  given  to  him.  The  proposition 
to  follow  king  Harald  as  a  missionary  among  the  heathen  Danes 
he  immediately  accepted,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  his 
friends,  and  accompanied  by  Autbert  he  repaired,  in  827,  to 
Denmark,  where  he  immediately  established  a  missionary  station 
at  Hedeby,  in  the  province  of  Schleswig.  The  task  was  difficult, 
but  the  beginning  was  not  without  success.  Twelve  young  boys 
were  bought  to  be  educated  as  teachers,  and  not  a  few  people  were 
converted  and  baptized.  His  kindness  to  the  poor,  the  sick,  to 
all  who  were  in  distress,  attracted  attention;  his  fervor  as  a 


2  29.  THE  CHEISTIANIZATION  OF  DEtfMABK.          113 

preacher  and  teacher  produced  sympathy  without,  as  yet,  pro- 
voking resistance.  But  in  829  king  Harald  was  again  expelled 
and  retired  to  Riustri,  a  possession  on  the  mouth  of  the  Weser, 
which  the  emperor  had  given  to  himt  as  a  fief.  Ansgar  was  com- 
pelled to  follow  him  and  the  prospects  of  the  Danish  mission 
became  very  dark,  the  more  so  as  Autbert  had  to  give  up  any 
further  participation  in  the  work  on  account  of  ill  health,  and 
return  to  New  Corwey.  At  this  time  an  invitation  from  the 
Swedish  king,  Bjorn,  gave  Ansgar  an  opportunity  to  visit  Swe- 
den, and  he  stayed  there  till  831,  when  the  establishment  of  an 
episcopal  see  at  Hamburg,  determined  upon  by  the  diet  of  AIx- 
le-chapelle  in  831,  promised  to  give  the  Danish  mission  a  new 
impulse.  All  Scandinavia  was  laid  under  the  new  see,  and  Ana- 
gar  was  consecrated  its  first  bishop  by  bishop  Drago  of  Metz,  a 
brother  of  the  emperor,  with  the  solemn  assistance  of  three  arch- 
bishops, Ebo  of  Eheims,  Hetti  of  Treves  and  Obgar  of  Mentz. 
A  bull  of  Gregory  IV.1  confirmed  the  whole  arrangement,  and 
Ansgar  received  personally  the  pallium  from  the  hands  of  the 
Pope.  In  834  the  emperor  endowed  the  see  with  the  rich  mon- 
astery of  Thorout,  in  West  Flanders,  south  of  Bruges,  and  the 
work  of  the  Danish  mission  could  now  be  pushed  with  vigor. 
Enabled  to  treat  with  the  petty  kings  of  Denmark  on  terms  of 
equality,  and  possessed  of  means  to  impress  them  with  the  import- 
ance of  the  cause,  Ansgar  made  rapid  progress,  but,  as  was  to  be 
expected,  the  progress  soon  awakened  opposition.  In  834  a 
swarm,  of  heathen  Danes  penetrated  with  a  fleet  of  six  hundred 
small  vessels  into  the  Elb  under  the  command  of  king  Horich  I., 
and  laid  siege  to  Hamburg.  The  city  was  taken,  sacked  and 
burntj  the  church  which  Ansgar  had  built,  the  monastery  in 
which  he  lived,  his  library  containing  a  copy  of  the  Bible  which 
the  emperor  had  presented  to  him,  efc.,  were  destroyed  and  the 
Christians  were  driven  away  from  the  place.  For  many  days 
Ansgar  fled  from  hiding-place  to  hiding-place  in  imminent  danger 
of  his  life.  He  sought  refuge  with  the  bishop  of  Bremen,  but 
*  Mabfflon:  Act.  8<md.  Bened.  Ord.  IV.  2,  p.  124. 


114  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

the  bishop  of  Bremen  was  jealous,  because  Scandinavia  had  not 
been  laid  under  his  see,  arid  refused  to  give  any  assistance.  The 
revenues  of  Thorout  he  lost,  as  the  emperor,  Charles  the  Bald, 
gave  the  fief  to  one  of  his  favorites.  Even  his  own  pupils 
deserted  him. 

In  this  great  emergency  his  character  shone  forth  in  all  its 
strength  and  splendor;  he  bore  what  God  laid  upon  him  in 
silence  and  made  no  complaint.  Meanwhile  Lewis  the  German 
came  to  his  support.  In  846  the  see  of  Bremen  became  vacant. 
The  see  of  Hamburg  was  then  united  to  that  of  Bremen,  and  io 
this  new  sec,  which  Ansgar  was  called  to  fill,  a  papal  bull  of  May 
31,  864,  gave  archicpiscopal  rank.  Installed  in  Bremen,  Anngar 
immediately  took  up  again  the  Danish  mission  and  again  with 
success.  He  won  even  king  Horich  himself  for  the  Christian 
cause,  and  obtained  permission  from  him  to  btiikl  a  dmreh  in 
Hedeby,  the  first  Christian  church  in  Denmark,  dedicated  to  Our 
Lady.  Under  king  Horich's  son  this  church  was  allowed  to 
have  bells,  a  particular  horror  to  the  heathens,  and  a  new  and 
larger  church  was  commenced  in  Kibe.  By  Amgar's  activity 
Christianity  became  an  established  and  acknowledged  institution 
in  Denmark,  and  not  only  in  Denmark  but  also  in  Sweden,  which 
he  visited  once  more,  848-850. 

The  principal  feature  of  his  spiritual  character  was  ascetic 
severity;  he  wore  a  coarse  hair-shirt  clone  to  the  nkin,  fasted 
much  and  spent  most  of  his  time  in  prayer.  But  with  this  asceti- 
cism he  connected  a  great  deal  of  practical  energy;  he  rebuked 
the  idleness  of  the  monks,  demanded  of  his  pupils  that  they 
should  have  some  actual  work  at  hand,  arid  was  often  occupied 
in  knitting,  while  praying.  His  enthusiasm  and  holy  raptures 
were  also  singularly  well-tempered  by  good  common  sense. 
To  those  who  wished  to  extol  his  greatness  and  goodness  by 
ascribing  miracles  to  him,  he  said  that  the  greatest  miracle  in 
his  life  would  be,  if  God  ever  made  a  thoroughly  pious  man  out 
of  him,1  Most  prominent,  however,  among  the  spiritual  features 

1  <(Si  dignus  mem  ojpud  2)wm  meum,  rogarem  qmtenus  twum  mhi  conctderct 


§  29.  THE  CHEISTIANIZATION  OF  DENMARK.          115 

of  his  character  shines  forth  his  unwavering  faith  in  the  final 
success  of  his  cause  and  the  never-failing  patience  with  which 
this  faith  fortified  his  soul.  In  spite  of  apparent  failure  he  never 
gave  up  his  work;  overwhelmed  with  disaster,  he  still  continued 
it.  From  his  death-bed  he  wrote  a  letter  to  king  Lewis  to  recom- 
mend to  him  the  Scandinavian  mission.  Other  missionaries  may 
have  excelled  him  in  sagacity  and  organizing  talent,  but  none 
in  heroic  patience  and  humility.  He  died  at  Bremen,  Feb.  3, 
865,  and  lies  buried  there  in  the  church  dedicated  to  him.  He 
was  canonized  by  Nicholas  I. 

Ansgar's  successor  in  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Hamburg- 
Bremen  was  his  friend  and  biographer,  RIMBERT,  865-888. 
In  his  time  all  the  petty  kingdoms  into  which  Denmark  was 
divided,  were  gathered  together  under  one  sceptre  by  King 
Gorm  the  Old;  but  this  event,  in  one  respect  very  favorable  to 
the  rapid  spread  of  Christianity,  was  in  other  respects  a  real 
obstacle  to  the  Christian  cause  as  it  placed  Denmark,  politically, 
in  opposition  to  Germany,  which  was  the  basis  and  only  support 
of  the  Christian  mission  to  Denmark.  King  Gorm  himself  was 
a  grim  heathen;  but  his  queen,  Thyra  Danabod,  had  embraced 
Christianity,  and  both  under  Rimbert  and  his  successor,  Adal- 
gar,  888-909,  the  Christian  missionaries  were  allowed  to  work 
undisturbed.  A  new  church,  the  third  in  Denmark,  was  built 
at  Aarhus.  But  under  Adalgar's  successor,  TJnni,  909-936, 
King  Gorm's  fury,  half  political  and  half  religious,  sud- 
denly burst  forth.  The  churches  were  burnt,  the  missionaries 
were  killed  or  expelled,  and  nothing  but  the  decisive  victory  of 
Henry  the  Fowler,  king  of  Germany,  over  the  Danish  king 
saved  the  Christians  in  Denmark  from  complete  extermination. 
By  the  peace  it  was  agreed  that  King  Gorm  should  allow  the 
preaching  of  Christianity  in  his  realm,  and  Unni  took  up  the 
cause  again  with  great  energy.  Between  Unni's  successor, 
Adaldag,  936-988,  and  King  Hai^ld  Blue  Tooth,  a  son  of 

gignum,  videlicet  ut  demesua  gratia  faceretbomm  hominm."  Vita  by  Eimbert, 
c.67(Mignell8,p.l008). 


116  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

Gorm  the  Old,  there  grew  up  a  relation  which  almost  might 
be  called  a  co-operation.  Around  the  three  churches  in  Jut- 
land: Schleswig,  Elbe  and  Aarhus,  and  a  fourth  in  Funen: 
Odense,  bishoprics  were  formed,  and  Adaldag  consecrated  four 
native  bishops.  The  church  obtained  right  to  accept  and  hold 
donations,  and  instances  of  very  large  endowments  occurred. 

The  war  between  Bang  Harald  and  the  German  king,  Otto  II., 
arose  from  merely  political  causes,  but  led  to  the  baptism  of  the 
former,  and  soon  after  the  royal  residence  was  moved  from 
Leire,  one  of  the  chief  centres  of  Scandinavian  heathendom,  to 
Koeskilde,  where  a  Christian  church  was  built.  Among  the 
Danes,  however,  there  was  a  large  party  which  was  very  ill- 
pleased  at  this  turn  of  aflairs.  They  were  heathens  because 
heathenism  was  flie  only  religion  which  suited  their  passions. 
They  clung  to  Thor,  not  from  conviction,  but  from  pride. 
They  looked  down  with  indignation  and  dismay  upon  the  trans- 
formation which  Christianity  everywhere  effected  both  of  the 
character  and  the  life  of  the  people.  Finally  they  left  the  coun- 
try and  settled  under  the  leadership  of  Palnatoke,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Oder,  where  they  founded  a  kind  of  republic,  Jomsborg. 

From  this  place  they  waged  a  continuous  war  upon  Christianity 
in  Denmark  for  more  than  a  decade,  and  with  dreadful  effect. 
The  names  of  the  martyrs  would  fill  a  whole  volume,  says  Adam 
of  Bremen.  The  church  in  Eoeskilde  was  burnt.  The  bishopric 
of  Fiinen  was  abolished.  The  king's  own  son,  Swen,  was  one 
of  the  leaders,  and  the  king  himself  was  finally  shot  by  Palna- 
toke, 991.  Swen,  however,  soon  fell  out  with  the  Joms  vikings, 
and  his  invasion  of  England  gave  the  warlike  passions  of  the 
nation  another  direction. 

From  the  conquest  of  that  country  and  its  union  with  Den- 
mark, the  Danish  mission  received  a  vigorous  impulse.  King 
Swen  himself  was  converted,  and  showed  great  jzeal  for  Chris- 
tianity. He  rebuilt  the  church  in  Roeskilde,  erected  a  new 
church  at  Lund,  in  Skaane,  placed  the  sign  of  the  cross  on 
his  coins,  and  exhorted,  on  his  death-bed,  his  son  Canute  to 


g29.  THE  CHRISTIANIZAT10N  OF  BENMAEK.          H7 

work  for  the  Christianization  of  Denmark.  The  ardor  of  the 
Hamburg-Bremen  archbishops  for  the  Danish  mission  seemed 
at  this  time  to  have  cooled,  or  perhaps  the  growing  difference 
between  the  language  spoken  to  the  north  of  the  Eyder  and  that 
spoken  to  the  south  of  that  river  made  missionary  work  in  Den- 
mark very  difficult  for  a  German  preacher.  Ansgar  had  not 
felt  this  difference;  but  two  centuries  later  it  had  probably  be- 
come necessary  for  the  German  missionary  to  learn  a  foreign 
language  before  entering  on  his  work  in  Denmark. 

Between  England  and  Denmark  there  existed  no  such  difference 
of  language.  King  Canute  the  Great,  during  whose  reign  (1019- 
1035)  the  conversion  of  Denmark  was  completed,  could  employ 
English  priests  and  monks  in  Denmark  without  the  least  em- 
barrassment. He  re-established  the  bishopric  of  Fiinen,  and 
founded  two  new  bishoprics  in  Sealand  and  Skaane;  and  these 
three  sees  were  filled  with  Englishmen  consecrated  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  He  invited  a  number  of  English  monks 
to  Denmark,  and  settled  them  partly  as  ecclesiastics  at  the 
churches,  partly  in  small  missionary  stations,  scattered  all  around 
in  the  country;  and  everywhere,  in  the  style  of  the  church- 
building  and  in  the  character  of  the  service,  the  English  influ- 
ence was  predominating.  This  circumstance,  however,  did  in 
no  way  affect  the  ecclesiastical  relation  between  Denmark  and 
the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Hamburg-Bremen.  The  authority  of 
the  archbishop,  though  not  altogether  unassailed,  was  neverthe- 
less generally  submitted  to  with  good  grace,  and  until  in  the 
twelfth  century  an  independent  Scandinavian  archbishopric  was 
established  at  Lund,  with  the  exception  of  the  above  cases,  he 
always  appointed  and  consecrated  the  Danish  bishops.  Also  the 
relation  to  the  Pope  was  very  cordial.  Canute  made  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Rome,  and  founded  several  Hospitia  Danorum  there.  He 
refused,  however,  to  permit  the  introduction  of  the  Peter's  pence 
in  Denmark,  and  the  tribute  which,  up  to  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, was  annually  sent  from  that  country  to  Borne,  was  con- 
sidered a  voluntary  gift. 


118  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  390-1049. 

The  last  part  of  Denmark  which  was  converted  was  the  island 
of  Bornholm.  It  was  christianized  in  1060  by  Bishop  Egius 
of  Lund.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  in  Denmark  Chris- 
tianity was  not  made  a  part  of  the  law  of  the  land,  such  as  was 
the  case  in  England  and  in  Norway. 

§  30.  The  Christmnissation  of  Sweden. 

ElMBERTTTS:  Vita  Ansgariij  in  Pertz:  Monumenta  IL 

ADAMTJS  BKBMBNSIS:  Gesta  Ham.  EccL  Pont., in  Pertz:  MomimentaVIL; 

separate  edition  by  Lappenberg.    Hanover,  1846. 
HISTORIC  S.  SIGFRIDI,  in  Scriptt.  Rer.  Suec.  Medii-csvi,  T.  II. 

Just  when  the  expulsion  of  Harald  Klak  compelled  Ansgar  to 
give  up  the  Danish  mission,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  an  em- 
bassy was  sent  by  the  Swedish  king,  Bjorn,  to  the  emperor, 
Lewis  the  Pious,  asking  him  to  send  Christian  missionaries  to 
Sweden.  Like  the  Danes,  the  Swedes  had  become  acquainted 
with  Christianity  through  their  wars  and  commercial  connections 
with  foreign  countries,  and  with  many  this  acquaintance  appears 
to  have  awakened  an  actual  desire  to  become  Christians.  Ac- 
cordingly Ansgar  went  to  Sweden  in  829,  accompanied  by  Wit- 
mar.  While  crossing  the  Baltic,  the  vessel  was  overtaken  and 
plundered  by  pirates,  and  he  arrived  empty  handed,  not  to 
say  destitute,  at  Bjorko  or  Birka,  the  residence  of  King  Bjorn, 
situated  on  an  island  in  the  Mselarn.  Although  poverty  and 
misery  were  very  poor  introduction  to  a  heathen  king  in  ancient 
Scandinavia,  he  was  well  revived  by  the  king;  and  in  Hergeir 
one  of  the  most  prominent/  men  at  the  court  of  Birka,  he  found 
a  warm  and  reliable  friend.  Hergeir  built  the  first  Christian 
chapel  in  Sweden,  and  during  his  whole  life  he  proved  an  un- 
failing and  powerful  support  of  the  Christian  cause.  After  two 
years'  successful  labor,  Ansgar  returned  to  Germany;  but  he 
did  not  forget  the  work  begun.  As  soon  as  he  was  well  estab- 
lished as  bishop  in  Hamburg,  he  sent,  in  834,  Gautbert,  a 
nephew  of  Ebo,  to  Sweden,  accompanied  by  Nithajrd  and  a 
number  of  other  Christian  priests,  and  well  provided  with  every- 


g  30.  THE  CHEISTIANIZATION  OF  SWEDEN.  119 

thing  necessary  for  the  work.  Gautbert  labored  with  great  suc- 
cess. In  Birka  he  built  a  church,  and  thus  it  became  possible 
for  the  Christians,  scattered  all  over  Sweden,  to  celebrate  service 
and  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  their  own  country  without 
going  to  Duerstede  or  some  other  foreign  place.  But  here,  as 
in  Denmark,  the  success  of  the  Christian  mission  aroused  the 
jealousy  and  hatred  of  the  heathen,  and,  at  last,  even  Hergeir 
was  not  able  to  keep  them  within  bounds.  An  infuriated  swarm 
broke  into  the  house  of  Gaufcbert.  The  house  was  plundered; 
Nithard  was  murdered;  the  church  was  burnt,  and  Gautbert 
himself  was  sent  in  chains  beyond  the  frontier.  He  never  re- 
turned to  Sweden,  but  died  as  bishop  of  Osnabriick,  shortly 
before  Ansgar.  When  Ansgar  first  heard  of  the  outbreak  in 
Sweden,  he  was  himself  flying  before  the  fury  of  the  Danish 
heathen,  and  for  several  years  he  was  unable  to  do  anything 
for  the  Swedish  mission.  Ardgar,  a  former  hermit,  now  a  priest, 
went  to  Sweden,  and  in  Birka  he  found  that  Hergeir  had  suc- 
ceeded in  keeping  together  and  defending  the  Christian  congre- 
gation; but  Hergeir  died  shortly  after,  and  with  him  fell  the 
last  defence  against  the  attacks  of  the  heathen  and  barbarians. 
Meanwhile  Ansgar  had  been  established  in  the  archiepiscopal 
sec  of  Hamburg-Bremen.  In  848,  he  determined  to  go  him- 
self to  Sweden.  The  costly  presents  he  gave  to  king  Olaf,  the 
urgent  letters  he  brought  from  the  emperor,  and  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, the  magnificence  and  solemnity  of  the  appearance  of  the 
mission  made  a  deep  impression.  The  king  promised  that  the 
question  should  be  laid  before  the  assembled  people,  whether  or 
not  they  would  allow  Christianity  to  be  preached  again  in  the 
country.  In  the  assembly  it  was  the  address  of  an  old  Swede, 
proving  that  the  god  of  the  Christians  was  stronger  even  than 
Thor,  and  that  it  was  poor  policy  for  a  nation  not  to  have  the 
strongest  god,  which  finally  turned  the  scales,  and  once  more 
the  Christian  missionaries  were  allowed  to  preach  undisturbed 
in  the  country.  Before  Ansgar  left,  in  8t50,  the  church  was  rebuilt 
in  Birka,  and,  for  a  number  of  years,  the  missionary  labor  was 


120  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

continued  with  great  zeal  by  Erimbert,  a  nephew  of  Gautbert, 
by  Ansfrid,  born  a  Dane,  and  by  Eimbert,  also  a  Dane. 

Nevertheless,  although  the  persecutions  ceased,  Christianity 
made  little  progress,  and  when,  in  935,  Archbishop  TInni  himself 
visited  Birka,  his  principal  labor  consisted  in  bringing  back  to 
the  Christian  fold  such  members  as  had  strayed  away  among 
the  heathen,  and  forgotten  their  faith.  Half  a  century  later, 
however,  during  the  reign  of  Olaf  Skotkonge,  the  mission  re- 
ceived a  vigorous  impulse.  The  king  himself  and  his  sons  were 
won  for  the  Christian  cause,  and  from  Denmark  a  number  of 
English  missionaries  entered  the  country.  The  most  prominent 
among  these  was  Sigfrid,  who  has  been  mentioned  beside  Ans- 
gar  as  the  apostle  of  the  North.  By  his  exertions  many  were 
converted,  and  Christianity  became  a  legally  recognized  religion 
in  the  country  beside  the  old  heathenism.  In  the  Southern  part 
of  Sweden,  heathen  sacrifices  ceased,  and  heathen  altars  disap- 
peared. In  the  Northern  part,  however,  the  old  faith  still  con- 
tinued to  live  on,  partly  because  it  was  difficult  for  the  mission- 
aries to  penetrate  into  Ifoose  wild  and  forbidding  regions,  partly 
because  there  existed  a  difference  of  tribe  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  Swedes,  which  again  gave  rise  to  political  differ- 
ences. 

The  Christianization  of  Sweden  was  not  completed  until  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 

§  31.  The  Christianization  of  Norway  and  Iceland. 

SBTOBRE  STURLESOiir  (d.  1241) :  ffeimkringfa  (i.  e.  Circle  of  Home,  writ- 
ten first  in  Icelandic),  seu  Historic,  Eegum  Stytentrionalium,  etc. 
Stockholm,  1697, 2  vols.  The  same  in  Icelandic,  Danish,  and  Latin. 
Havn.,  1777-1826;  in  German  by  Mohnike,  1835;  in  English,  transl. 
by  Sam.  Laing.  London,  1844,  3  vols.  This  history  of  the  Norwe- 
gian kings  reaches  from  the  mythological  age  to  A.D.  1177. 

N.  P.  SiBBEiusr:  Eibliotheca  Historica  Dano-Norvegiea.  Hamburg,  1716. 
Fornmanna-jSogur  seu  Scripta  Hist.  Islandorum.  Hafiiise,  1828. 

K.  MAURER:  Bekehrung  des  Norwegischen  Stammes  mm  Okristenthum. 
Munchen,  1855-66,  2  vols. 

THOMAS  CARLYLE  :  Early  Kings  of  Norway.  London  and  N.  York,  1875. 

O.  F.  MACLEAB  :  The  Conversion  of  the  Northmen.    London,  1879. 


2  31.  THE  CHRISTIANIZATION  OF  NORWAY.          121 

Christianity  was  introduced  in  Norway  almost  exclusively  by 
the  exertions  of  the  kings,  and  the  means  employed  were  chiefly 
violence  and  tricks.  The  people  accepted  Christianity  not  because 
they  had  become  acquainted  with  it  and  felt  a  craving  for  it,  but 
because  they  were  compelled  to  accept  it,  and  the  result  was  that 
heathen  customs  and  heathen  Ideas  lived  on  in  Christian  Norway 
for  centuries  after  they  had  disappeared  from  the  rest  of  Scandi- 
navia. 

The  first  attempt  to  introduce  Christianity  in  the  country 
was  made  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  by  Hakon  the  Good. 
Norway  was  gathered  into  one  state  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth 
century  by  Harald  Haarfagr,  but  internal  wars  broke  out  again 
under  Harald's  son  and  successor,  Eric.  These  troubles  in- 
duced Hakon,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Harald  Haarfagr  and  edu« 
cated  in  England  at  the  court  of  king  Athelstan,  to  return  to 
Norway  and  lay  claim  to  the  crown.  He  succeeded  in  gaining 
a  party  in  his  favor,  expelled  Eric  and  conquered  all  Norway, 
where  he  soon  became  exceedingly  popular,  partly  on  account  of 
his  valor  and  military  ability,  partly  also  on  account  of  the  refine- 
ment and  suavity  of  his  manners.  Hakon  was  a  Christian,  and 
the  Christiankation  of  Norway  seems  to  have  been  his  highest 
goal  from  the  very  first  days  of  his  reign.  But  he  was  prudent. 
Without  attracting  any  great  attention  to  the  matter,  he  won  over 
to  Christianity  a  number  of  those  who  stood  nearest  to  him, 
called  Christian  priests  from  England,  and  built  a  church  at 
Drontheim.  Meanwhile  he  began  to  think  that  tie  time  had  come 
for  a  more  public  and  more  decisive  step,  and  at  the  great  Frost- 
ething,  where  all  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  country  were 
assembled,  he  addressed  the  people  on  the  matter  and  exhorted 
them  to  become  Christians.  The  answer  he  received  was  very 
characteristic.  They  had  no  objection  to  Christianity  itself,  for 
they  did  not  know  what  it  meant,  but  they  suspected  the  king^s 
proposition,  as  if  it  were  a  political  stratagem  by  means  of  which 
he  intended  to  defraud  them  of  their  political  rights  and  liber* 
ties.  Thus  they  not  only  refused  to  become  Christians  them- 


122  FOURTH  PEKIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

selves,  but  even  compelled  the  king  to  partake  in  their  heathen 
festivals  and  offer  sacrifices  to  their  heathen  gods.  The  king  was 
very  indignant  and  determined  to  take  revenge,  but  just  as  he 
had  got  an  army  together,  the  sons  of  the  expelled  Eric  landed 
in  Norway  and  in  the  battle  against  them,  961,  he  received  a 
deadly  wound. 

The  sons  of  Eric,  who  had  lived  in  England  during  their 
exile,  were  likewise  Christians,  and  they  took  up  the  cause 
of  Christianity  in  a  very  high-handed  manner,  overthrowing 
the  heathen  altars  and  forbidding  sacrifices.  But  the  impres- 
sion they  made  was  merely  odious,  and  their  successor,  Hakon 
Jarl,  was  a  rank  heathen.  The  &rsi  time  Christianity  really 
gained  a  footing  in  Norway,  was  under  Olaf  Trygveson.  De- 
scended from  Harald  Haarfagr,  but  sold,  while  a  child,  as  a  slave 
in  Esdionia,  he  was  ransomed  by  a  relative  who  incidentally  met 
him  and  recognized  his  own  kin  in  the  beauty  of  the  boy,  and 
was  educated  at  Moscow.  Afterwards  he  roved  about  much  in 
Denmark,  Wendland,  England  and  Ireland,  living  as  a  sea- 
king.  In  England  he  became  acquainted  with  Christianity  and 
immediately  embraced  it,  but  he  carried  his  viking-nature  almost 
unchanged  over  into  Christianity,  and  a  fiercer  knight  of  the 
cross  was  probably  never  seen.  Invited  to  Norway  by  a  party 
which  had  grown  impatient  of  the  tyranny  of  Hakon  Jarl,  he  easily 
made  himself  master  of  the  country,  in  995,  and  immediately 
set  about  making  Christianity  its  religion,  "  punishing  severely/' 
as  Snorre  says,  "  all  who  opposed  him,  killing  some,  mutilating 
others,  and  driving  the  rest  into  banishment"  In  the  Southern 
part  there  still  lingered  a  remembrance  of  Christianity  from  tike 
days  of  Hakon  the  Good,  and  things  went  on  here  somewhat 
more  smoothly,  though  Olaf  more  than  once  gave  the  people 
assembled  in  council  with  him  the  choice  between  fighting  him 
or  accepting  baptism  forthwith.  But  in  the  Northern  part 
all  the  craft  and  all  the  energy  of  the  king  were  needed  in  order 
to  overcome  the  opposition.  Once,  at  a  great  heathen  festival  at 
Moere,  he  told  the  assembled  people  that,  if  he  should  return  to 


§  81.  THE  CHEISTIANIZATION  OF  NOBWAY.          123 

the  heathen  gods  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to  make  some 
great  and  awful  sacrifice,  and  accordingly  he  seized  twelve  of  the 
most  prominent  men  present  and  prepared  to  sacrifice  them  to 
Thor.  They  were  rescued,  however,  when  the  whole  assembly 
accepted  Christianity  and  were  baptized.  In  the  year  1000,  he 
fell  in  a  battle  against  the  united  Danish  and  Swedish  kings,  but 
though  he  reigned  only  five  years,  he  nevertheless  succeeded  in 
establishing  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  Norway  and,  what  is 
still  more  remarkable,  no  general  relapse  into  heathenism  seems  to 
have  taken  place  after  his  death. 

During  the  reign  of  Olaf  the  Saint,  who  ruled  from  A.  D. 
1014-'30,  the  Christianization  of  the  country  was  completed. 
His  task  it  was  to  uproot  heathenism  wherever  it  was  still  found 
lurking,  and  to  give  the  Christian  religion  an  ecclesiastical  orga- 
nization. Like  his  predecessors,  he  used  craft  and  violence  to 
reach  his  goal.  Heathen  idols  and  altars  disappeared,  heathen 
customs  and  festivals  were  suppressed,  the  civil  laws  were  brought 
into  conformity  with  the  rules  of  Christian  morals.  The  country 
was  divided  into  dioceses  and  parishes,  churches  were  built,  and 
regular  revenues  were  raised  for  the  sustenance  of  the  clergy. 
For  the  most  part  he  employed  English  monks  and  priests,  but 
with  the  consent  of  the  archbishop  of  Hamburg-Bremen,  under 
whose  authority  he  placed  the  Norwegian  church.  After  his 
death,  in  the  battle  of  Stiklestad,  July  29, 1030,  he  was  canonized 
and  became  the  patron  saint  of  Norway. 

To  Norway  belonged,  at  that  time,  ICELAND.  From  Icelandic 
tradition  as  well  as  from  the  "  De  Mensura  Orbis  "  by  Dicuilus, 
an  Irish  monk  in  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  it  ap- 
pears that  Culdee  anchorites  used  to  retire  to  Iceland  as  early 
as  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century,  while  the  island  was  still 
uninhabited.  These  anchorites,  however,  seem  to  have  had  no 
influence  whatever  on  the  Norwegian  settlers  who,  flying  from 
the  tyranny  of  Harald  Haarfagr,  came  to  Iceland  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  ninth  century  and  began  to  people  the  country.  The 
new-comers  were  heathen,  and  they  looked  with  amazement  at 


124  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Auda  the  Rich,  the  widow  of  Olaf  the  White,  king  of  Dublin, 
who  in  892  took  up  her  abode  in  Iceland  aud  reared  a  lofty  cross 
in  front  of  her  house.  But  the  Icelanders  were  great  travellers, 
and  one  of  them,  Thorvald  Kodranson,  who  in  Saxony  had 
embraced  Christianity,  brought  bishop  Frederic  home  to  Iceland. 
Frederic  stayed  there  for  four  years,  and  his  preaching  found 
easy  access  among  the  people.  The  mission  of  Thangbrand  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  century  failed,  but  when  Norway,  or 
at  least  the  Norwegian  coast,  became  Christian,  the  intimate 
relation  between  Iceland  and  Norway  soon  brought  the  germs 
which  Frederic  had  planted,  into  rapid  growth,  and  in  the  year 
1000  the  Icelandic  Althing  declared  Christianity  to  be  the 
established  religion  of  the  country.  The  first  church  was  built 
shortly  after  from  timber  sent  by  Olaf  the  Saint  from  Norway 
to  the  treeless  island. 


IV.  THE  CHBISTIAJSriZATION  OF  THE  SLAVS. 
§  32.  General  Survey. 

A-  EEGENVOLSCTOS:  System  histchronol.  JScdesiarum  Slavonic.    Traj. 

ad  Rhen.,  1652. 

A.  WENTOERSCITTS:  Hist,  eccksiast.  EccMarum  Slavonic.    Amst.,  1689. 
Komnrs :  Infroductio  in  Hist.  Slavorum  imprimis  sacram.  Altona,  1704* 
J.  CH.  JORDAN:  Origines  JSfawcce.    Vindob.,  1745. 
S.  DE  BOHTJSZ:  fiecherches  hist,  sur  I'origine  dee  Swrmates,  des  JEsclavons, 

et  des  Slaves,  et  sur  lea  epoques  de  la  conversion  de  ces  peupks.    St. 

Petersburg  and  London,  1812. 

P.  J.  SGHAFABIK:  Slavische  Alterthumer.    Leipzig,  1844,  2  vols. 
HOBVAT:  UrgeschicMe  der  Sloven.    Pest,  1844. 
W.  A.  MACIEJOWSKY:  Essai  hist,  sur  Veglixe  ehr  fa  primitive  de  deux  rites 

chest  fas  Slaves.    Translated  from  Polish  into  French  by  L.  F.  Sauvet, 

Paris,  1846. 

At  what  time  the  Slavs  first  made  their  appearance  in  Europe 
is  not  known.  Latin  and  Greek  writers  of  the  second  half 
of  fihe  sixth  century,  such  as  Procopius,  Jornandes,  Agathias, 
the  emperor  Mauritius  and  others,  knew  only  those  Slavs  who 


2  32.  THE  CHBISTIANIZATION  OF  THE  SLAVS.        125 

lived  along  the  frontiers  of  the  Eoman  empire.  In  the  era  of 
Charlemagne  the  Slavs  occupied  the  whole  of  Eastern  Europe 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Balkan;  the  Obotrites  and  Wends  be- 
tween the  Elbe  and  the  Vistula;  the  Poles  around  the  Vistula, 
and  behind  them  the  Russians;  the  Czechs  in  Bohemia.  Fur- 
ther to  the  South  the  compact  mass  of  Slavs  was  split  by  the  in- 
vasion of  various  Finnish  or  Turanian  tribes;  the  Huns  in  the 
fifth  century,  the  Avars  in  the  sixth,  the  Bulgarians  in  the 
seventh,  the  Magyars  in  the  ninth.  The  Avars  penetrated  to 
the  Adriatic,  but  were  thrown  back  in  640  by  the  Bulgarians; 
they  then  settled  in  Panonia,  were  subdued  and  converted  by 
Charlemagne,  791-796,  and  disappeared  altogether  from  history 
in  the  ninth  century.  The  Bulgarians  adopted  the  Slavic  lan- 
guage and  became  Slavs,  not  only  in  language,  but  also  in  cus- 
toms and  habits.  Only  the  Magyars,  who  settled  around  the 
Theiss  and  the  Danube,  and  are  the  ruling  race  in  Hungary, 
vindicated  themselves  as  a  distinct  nationality. 

The  great  mass  of  Slavs  had  no  common  political  organization, 
but  formed  a  number  of  kingdoms,  which  flourished,  some  for 
a  shorter,  and  others  for  a  longer  period,  such  as  Moravia,  Bul- 
garia, Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Eussia.  In  a  religious  respect  also 
great  differences  existed  among  them.  They  were  agricultu- 
rists, and  their  gods  were  representatives  of  natural  forces;  but 
while  Eadigost  and  Sviatovit,  worshipped  by  the  Obotrites  and 
Wends,  were  cruel  gods,  in  whose  temples,  especially  at  Arcona 
in  the  island  of  Rugen,  human  beings  were  sacrificed,  Svarog 
worshipped  by  the  Poles,  and  Dazhbog,  worshipped  by  the 
Bohemians,  were  mild  gods,  who  demanded  love  and  prayer. 
Common  to  all  Slavs,  however,  was  a  very  elaborate  belief  in 
fairies  and  trolls;  and  polygamy,  sometimes  connected  with  sut- 
teeism,  widely  prevailed  among  them.  Their  conversion  was 
attempted  both  by  Constantinople  and  by  Borne;  but  the  cha- 
otic and  ever-shifting  political  conditions  under  which  they  lived, 
the  rising  difference  and  jealousy  between  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern churches,  and  the  great  difficulty  which  the  missionaries 


126  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

experienced  in  learning  their  language,  presented  formidable 
obstacles,  and  at  the  close  of  the  period  the  work  was  not  yet 
completed. 

§  33.  Christian  Missions  among  Hie  Wends. 

ADAM  of  BREMEN  (d.  1067) :  Gesta  Hammenb.  (ffamburgensis)  Ecd.  Pont., 

in  Pertz;  Monumenta  Germ.,  VII. 
HELMOLDTJS  (d.  1147)  and  ARNOLDUS  LTJBECENSIS:  Chronicon  Sfavorum 

sive  AnnaZes  Sfavorum,  from  Charlemagne  to  1170,  ed.  H.  JBangert. 

Lubecse,  1659.    German  translation  by  Laurent,  Berlin,  1852. 
SPIEKER  :  Eirchengeschichte  der  Mark  jBrandenburg.    Berlin,  1839. 
WIGGERS:  JZircfimgeschickte  Mecklenburg*.    ParcMm,  1840. 
GIESEBREGET:  Wendische  Geschiehten.    Berlin,  1843. 

Charlemagne  was  the  first  who  attempted  to  introduce  Chris- 
tianity among  the  Slavic  tribes  which,  under  the  collective  name 
of  Wends,  occupied  the  Northern  part  of  Germany,  along  the 
coast  of  the  Baltic,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe  to  the  Vistula: 
Wagrians  in  Holstein,  Obotrites  in  Mecklenburg,  Serbians  on 
the  Saxon  boundary,  Wilzians  in  Brandenburg,  eto.  But  in  the 
hands  of  Charlemagne,  the  Christian  mission  was  a  political 
weapon;  and  to  the  Slavs,  acceptation  of  Christianity  became 
synonymous  with  political  and  national  subjugation.  Hence 
their  fury  against  Christianity  which,  time  after  time,  broke 
forth,  volcano-like,  and  completely  destroyed  the  work  of  the 
missionaries.  The  decisive  victories  which  Otto  I.  gained  over 
the  Wends,  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  attempt,  on  a  large  scale, 
the  establishment  of  the  Christian  church  among  them.  Episcopal 
sees  ware  founded  at  Havelberg  in  946,  at  Altenburg  or  Olden- 
burg in  948,  at  Meissen,  Merseborg,  and  Zeitz  in  968,  and  in 
the  last  year  an  archiepiscopal  see  was  founded  ai  Magdeburg. 
Boso,  a  monk  from  St.  Emmeran,  at  Kegensburg,  who  first  had 
translated  the  formulas  of  the  liturgy  into  the  language  of  the 
natives,  became  bishop  of  Merseburg,  and  Adalbert,  who  first 
had  preached  Christianity  in  the  island  of  Bugen,  became  arch* 
bishop. 
But  again  the  Christian  church  was  used  as  a  means  for  poll- 


§  33.  CHEISTIAN  MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  WENDS       127 

tical  purposes,  and,  in  the  reign  of  Otto  II.,  a  fearful  rising 
took  place  among  the  Wends  under  the  leadership  of  Prince 
Mistiwoi.  He  had  become  a  Christian  himself;  but,  indignant 
at  the  suppression  which  was  practiced  in  the  name  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  he  returned  to  heathenism,  assembled  the  tribes  at 
Rethre,  one  of  the  chief  centres  of  Wendish  heathendom,  and 
began,  in  983,  a  war  which  spread  devastation  all  over  Northern 
Germany.  The  churches  and  monasteries  were  burnt,  and  the 
Christian  priests  were  expelled.  Afterwards  Mistiwoi  was 
seized  with  remorse,  and  tried  to  cure  the  evil  he  had  done  in 
an  outburst  of  passion.  But  then  his  subjects  abandoned  him; 
he  left  the  country,  and  spent  the  last  days  of  his  life  in  a  Chris- 
tian monastery  at  Bardewick.  His  grandson,  Gottschalk,  whose 
Slavic  name  is  unknown,  was  educated  in  the  Christian  faith  in 
the  monastery  of  St.  Michael,  near  Luneburg;  but  when  he 
heard  that  his  father,  Uto,  had  been  murdered,  1032,  the  old 
heathen  instincts  of  revenge  at  once  awakened  within  him.  He 
left  the  monastery,  abandoned  Christianity,  and  raised  a  storm 
of  persecution  against  the  Christians,  which  swept  over  all  Bran- 
denburg, Mecklenburg,  and  Holstein.  Defeated  and  taken 
prisoner  by  Bernard  of  Lower  Saxony,  he  returned  to  Chris- 
tianity; lived  afterwards  at  the  court  of  Canute  the  Great  in 
Denmark  and  England;  married  a  Danish  princess,  and  was 
made  ruler  of  the  Obotrites.  A  great  warrior,  he  conquered 
Holstein  and  Pommerania,  and  formed  a  powerful  Wendish 
empire;  and  on  this  solid  political  foundation,  he  attempted, 
with  considerable  success,  to  build  up  the  Christian  church. 
The  old  bishoprics  were  re-established,  and  new  ones  were 
founded  at  Razzeburg  and  Mecklenburg ;  monasteries  were  built 
at  Leuzen,  Oldenburg,  Razzeburg,  Lubeck,  and  Mecklenburg; 
missionaries  were  provided  by  Adalbert,  archbishop  of  Ham- 
burg-Bremen; the  liturgy  was  translated  into  the  native  tongue, 
and  revenues  were  raised  for  the  support  of  the  clergy,  the 
churches,  and  the  service. 
But,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  deeper  Christianity 


128  FOUBTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

penetrated  into  the  mass  of  the  people,  the  fiercer  hecame  the 
resistance  of  the  heathen.  Gottschalk  was  murdered  at  Lentz, 
June  7, 1066,  together  with  his  old  teacher,  Abbot  Uppo,  and  a 
general  rising  now  took  place.  The  churches  and  schools  were 
destroyed ;  the  priests  and  monks  were  stoned  or  killed  as  sacri- 
fices on  the  heathen  altars;  and  Christianity  was  literally  swept 
out  of  the  country.  It  took  several  decades  before  a  new  begin- 
ning could  be  made,  and  the  final  Christiardzation  of  the  Wends 
was  not  achieved  until  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 

§  34.    OyriKus  and  Mdhodius,  the  Apostles  of  the  Slavs.     OAm- 
tianizcdion  of  Moravia,  Bohemia  and  Poland. 

F.  M.  PELZEL  et  J.  DOBBOWSKY;  Eerrum  £ohemic.  Sm/ptores.    Prague. 

FRIESE:  Kirchengeschichte  d.  Konigrdchs  Pokn.    Breslau,  1786. 

FBANZ.  PALACKY:  Geschichte  von  Bohmen.  Prague,  3d  ed.,  1864  sqq.,  5 
Yols.  (down  to  1520). 

WATTENBACH:  Gesehiehte  d.  christt.  Exrche  in  JBohmen,  und  Mahren. 
Wien,  1849. 

A.  FMHD:  Die  Evrchengesch.  JBohmens.    Prague,  1863  sqq. 

Biographies  of  CYRILLUS  and  METHODIUS,  by  J.  DOBKOWSKY  (Prague, 
1823,  and  1826);  J.  A.  GINZEL  (Geschichte  der  Slawenapostel  und 
der  Sfawischen.  IMwrgie.  Leitmeritz,  1857) ;  PHILABET  (in  the  Rus- 
sian, German  translation,  Mitau,  1847) ;  J.  E.  BILEY  (Prague,  1863) ; 
DTOMLER  and  F.  MILKOSISCH  (Wien,  1870). 

The  Moravian  Slavs  were  subjugated  by  Charlemagne,  and 
the  bishop  of  Passau  was  charged  with  the  establishment  of  a 
Christian  mission  among  them.  Moymir,  their  chief,  was  con- 
verted and  bishoprics  were  founded  at  Olmtitz  and  Nitra.  But 
Lewis  the  German  suspected  Moymir  of  striving  after  indepen- 
dence and  supplanted  him  by  Eastislaw  or  Badislaw.  Rastis- 
law,  however,  accomplished  what  Moymir  had  only  been  sus- 
pected of.  He  formed  an  independent  Moravian  kingdom  and 
defeated  Lewis  the  German,  and  with  the  political  he  also  broke 
the  ecclesiastical  connections  with  Germany,  requesting  the  Byzan- 
tine emperor,  Michael  III.,  to  send  him  some  Greek  missionaries. 

CYBTLiiUB  and  METHODIUS  became  the  apostles  of  the  Slavs. 

Cyrillus,  whose  original  name  was  Constantinus,  was  born  at 


2  34.  CHEISTIANIZATION  OP  MORAVIA,  ETC.          129 

Thessalonica,  in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century,  and  studied 
philosophy  in  Constantinople,  whence  his  by-name:  the  philo- 
sopher. Afterwards  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  theology, 
and  went  to  live,  together  with  his  brother  Methodius,  in  a 
monastery*  A  strong  ascetic,  he  became  a  zealous  missionary. 
In  860  he  visited  the  Chazares,  a  Tartar  tribe  settled  on  the 
North-Eastern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  planted  a  Christian 
<5hurch  there.  He  afterward  labored  among  the  Bulgarians  and 
finally  went,  in  company  with  his  brother,  to  Moravia,  on  the 
invitation  of  Bastislaw,  in  863. 

Cyrillus  understood  the  Slavic  language,  and  succeeded  in 
making  it  available  for  literary  purposes  by  inventing  a  suitable 
alphabet.  He  used  Greek  letters,  with  some  Armenian  and 
Hebrew,  and  some  original  letters.  His  Slavonic  alphabet  is 
still  used  with  alterations  in  Eussia,  Wallachia,  Moldavia,  Bul- 
garia, and  Servia.  He  translated  the  liturgy  and  the  pericopes 
into  Slavic,  and  his  ability  to  preach  and  celebrate  service  in 
the  native  language  soon  brought  hundreds  of  converts  into 
his  fold.  A  national  Slavic  church  rapidly  arose;  the  German 
priests  with  the  Latin  liturgy  left  the  country.  It  corres- 
ponded well  with  the  political  plans  of  Bastislaw,  to  have  a 
church  establishment  entirely  independent  of  the  German  prelates, 
but  in  the  difference  which  now  developed  between  the  Eastern 
and  Western  churches,  it  was  quite  natural  for  the  young  Slavic 
church  to  connect  itself  with  Eome  and  not  with  Constantinople, 
partly  because  Cyrillus  always  had  shown  a  kind  of  partiality  to 
Borne,  partly  because  the  prudence  and  discrimination  with  which 
Pope  Nicholas  I.  recently  had  interfered  in  the  Bulgarian  church, 
must  have  made  a  good  impression. 

In  868  Cyrillus  and  Methodius  went  to  Eome,  and  a  perfect 
agreement  was  arrived  at  between  them  and  Pope  Adrian  II., 
both  with  respect  to  the  use  of  the  Slavic  language  in  religious 
service  and  with  respect  to  the  independent  position  of  the  Slavic 
church,  subject  only  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  Cyrillus 
died  in  Borne,  Feb.  14,  869,  but  Methodius  returned  to  Mo- 


130  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

ravia,  having  been  consecrated  archbisiiop  of  the  Pannonian 
diocese. 

The  organization  of  this  new  diocese  of  Pannonia  was,  to  some 
extent,  an  encroachment  on  ihe  dioceses  of  Passau  and  Salzburg, 
and  such  an  encroachment  must  have  been  so  much  the  more 
irritating  to  the  German  prelates,  as  they  really  had  been  the  first 
to  sow  the  seed  of  Christianity  among  the  Slavs.  The  growing 
difference  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches  also  had 
its  effect  The  German  clergy  considered  the  use  of  the  Slavic 
language  in  the  mass  an  unwarranted  innovation,  and  the  Greek 
doctrine  of  the  single  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  still  ad- 
hered to  by  Methodius  and  the  Slavic  church,  they  considered 
as  a  heresy.  Their  attacks,  however,  had  at  first  no  practical 
consequences,  but  when  Rastislaw  was  succeeded  in  870  by  Swa- 
topluk,  and  Adrian  II.  in  872  by  John  VIII.,  the  position  of 
Methodius  became  difficult.  Once  more,  in  879,  he  was  sum- 
moned to  Rome,  and  although,  this  time  too,  a  perfect  agreement 
was  arrived  at,  by  which  the  independence  of  the  Slavic  church 
was  confirmed,  and  all  her  natural  peculiarities  were  acknow- 
ledged, neither  the  energy  of  Methodius,  nor  the  support  of  the 
Pope  was  able  to  defend  her  against  the  attacks  which  now  were 
made  upon  her  both  from  without  and  from  within,  Swatopluk 
inclined  towards  the  German-Roman  views,  and  Wichin  one  of 
Methodius's  bishops,  became  their  powerful  champion. 

After  the  death  of  Swatopluk,  the  Moravian  kingdom  fell  to 
pieces  and  was  divided  between  the  Germans,  the  Czechs  of  Bohe- 
mia, and  the  Magyars  of  Hungary;  and  thereby  the  Slavic  church 
lost,  so  to  speak,  its  very  foundation.  Methodius  died  between 
881  and  910.  At  the  opening  of  the  tenth  century  the  Slavic 
church  had  entirely  lost  its  national  character.  The  Slavic  priests 
were  expelled  and  the  Slavic  liturgy  abolished,  German  priests 
and  the  Latin  liturgy  taking  their  place.  The  expelled  priests 
fled  to  Bulgaria,  whither  they  brought  the  Slavic  translations  of 
the  Bible  and  the  liturgy. 

Neither  Charlemagne  nor  Lewis  the  Pious  succeeded  in  subju- 


2  34.  CHEISTIAlSTIZATIOlSr  OP  MOEAVIA,  ETC.  131 

gating  Bohemia,  and  although  the  country  was  added  to  the  dio- 
cese of  Regensburg,  the  inhabitants  remained  pagans.  But  when 
Bohemia  became  a  dependency  of  the  Moravian  empire  and  Swa- 
topluk  married  a  daughter  of  the  Bohemian  duke,  Bomwai,  a 
door  was  opened  to  Christianity.  Borziwai  and  his  wife,  Lud- 
milla, were  baptized,  and  their  children  were  educated  in  the 
Christian  faith.  Nevertheless,  when  Wratislav,  Borziwatfs  son 
and  successor,  died  in  925,  a  violent  reaction  took  place.  He 
left  two  sons,  Wenzeslav  and  Boleslav,  who  were  placed  under 
the  tutelage  of  their  grandmother,  Ludmilla.  But  their  mother, 
Drahomira,  was  an  inveterate  heathen,  and  she  caused  the  mur- 
der first  of  Ludmilla,  and  then  of  Wenzeslav,  938.  Boleslav, 
surnamed  the  Cruel,  had  his  mother's  nature  and  also  her  faith, 
and  he  almost  succeeded  in  sweeping  Christianity  out  of  Bohemia. 
But  in  950  he  was  utterly  defeated  by  the  emperor,  Otto  L,  and 
compelled  not  only  to  admit  the  Christian  priests  into  the  country, 
but  also  to  rebuild  the  churches  which  had  been  destroyed,  and 
this  misfortune  seems  actually  to  have  changed  his  mind.  He 
now  became,  if  not  friendly,  at  least  forbearing  to  his  Christian 
subjects,  and,  during  the  reign  of  his  son  and  successor,  Boleslav 
the  Mild,  the  Christian  Church  progressed  so  far  in  Bohemia 
that  an  independent  archbishopric  was  founded  in  Prague.  The 
mass  of  the  people,  however,  still  remained  barbarous,  and  hea- 
thenish customs  and  ideas  lingered  among  them  for  more  than  a 
century.  Adalbert,  archbishop  of  Prague,  from  983  to  997,1 
preached  against  polygamy,  the  trade  in  Christian  slaves,  chiefly 
carried  on  by  the  Jews,  but  in  vain.  Twice  he  left  his  see, 
disgusted  and  discouraged ;  finally  he  was  mariyred  by  the  Prus- 
sian Wends.  Not  until  1038  archbishop  Severus  succeeded  in 
enforcing  laws  concerning  marriage,  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Day,  and  other  points  of  Christian  morals.  About  the  contest 
between  the  Romano-Slavic  and  the  Romano-Germanic  churches 
in  Bohemia,  nothing  is  known.  Legend  tells  that  Methodius 

1  Poswb  &  AdaZberti,  in  Scriptores  Eerum  Prussicaruml^and  Vita  &  Adalbert! 
in  Monumenfa  Qermm.  IV* 


132  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

himself  baptized  Borzrwai  and  Ludmilla,  and  the  first  missionary 
work  was,  no  doubt,  done  by  Skvic  priests,  but  at  the  time  of 
Adalbert  the  Germanic  tendency  was  prevailing. 

Also  among  the  Poles  the  Gospel  was  first  preached  by  Skvic 
missionaries,  and  Cyrillus  and  Methodius  are  celebrated  in  the 
Polish  liturgy1  as  the  apostles  of  the  country.  As  the  Moravian 
empire  under  Rastiskw  comprised  vast  regions  which  afterward 
belonged  to  the  kingdom  of  Poland,  it  is  only  natural  that  the 
movement  started  by.  Cyrillus  and  Methodius  should  have  reached 
also  these  regions,  and  the  name  of  at  least  one  Slavic  missionary 
among  the  Poles,  Wiznach,  is  known  to  history. 

After  the  breaking  up  of  the  Moravian  kingdom,  Moravian 
nobles  and  priests  sought  refuge  in  Poland,  and  during  the  reign 
of  duke  Semovit  Christianity  had  become  so  powerful  among  the 
Poles,  that  it  began  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  the  pagans,  and  a 
violent  contest  took  place.  By  the  marriage  between  Duke 
Miec2yslav  and  the  Bohemian  princess  Dombrowka,  a  sister  of 
Boleskv  the  Mild,  the  influence  of  Christianity  became  still 
stronger.  Dombrowka  brought  a  number  of  Bohemian  priests 
with  her  to  Poland,  965,  and  in  the  following  year  Mieczyskv 
himself  was  converted  and  baptized.  With  characteristic  arro- 
gance he  simply  demanded  that  all  his  subjects  should  follow  his 
example,  and  the  pagan  idols  were  now  burnt  or  thrown  into  the 
river,  pagan  sacrifices  were  forbidden  and  severely  punished,  and 
Christian  churches  were  built.  So  far  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity among  the  Poles  was  entirely  due  to  Slavic  influences, 
but  at  this  time  the  close  political  connection  between  Duke 
Mieczyskv  and  Otto  I.  opened  the  way  for  a  powerful  German 
influence.  Mieczyskv  borrowed  the  whole  organization  of  the 
Polish  church  from  Germany.  It  was  on  the  advice  of  Otto  I. 
that  he  founded  the  first  Polish  bishopric  at  Posen  and  placed  it 
under  the  authority  of  the  archbishop  of  Magdeburg.  German 
priests,  representing  Roman  doctrines  and  rites,  and  using  the 

1  Mfaale  proprium  regum  Polonice,  Venet.  1629 ;  Officia  propria  pvtronorum 
regni  Polonwe,  Antwerp,  1627. 


2  34.  CHBISTIANIZATION  OF  MOEAVIA,  ETC.  133 

Latin  language,  began  to  work  beside  the  Slavic  priests  who  rep- 
resented Greek  doctrines  and  rites  and  used  the  native  language, 
and  when  finally  the  Polish  church  was  placed  wholly  under  the 
authority  of  Home,  this  was  not  due  to  any  spontaneous  move- 
ment within  the  church  itself,  such  as  Polish  chroniclers  like  to 
represent  it,  but  to  the  influence  of  the  German  emperor  and  the 
German  church.  Under  Mieczyslav's  son,  Boleslav  Chrobry,  the 
first  king  of  Poland  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant  heroes  of  Polish 
history,  Poland,  although  christianized  only  on  the  surface,  became 
itself  the  basis  for  missionary  labor  among  other  Slavic  tribes. 
It  was  Boleslav  who  sent  Adalbert  of  Prague  among  the 
Wends,  and  when  Adalbert  here  was  pitifully  martyred,  Boles- 
lav  ransomed  his  remains,  had  them  buried  at  Gnesen  (whence 
they  afterwards  were  carried  to  Prague),  and  founded  here  an 
archiepiscopal  see,  around  which  the  Polish  church  was  finally 
consolidated.  The  Christian  mission,  however,  was  in  the  hands 
of  Boleslav,  just  as  it  often  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  German 
emperors,  and  sometimes  even  in  the  hands  of  the  Pope  himself, 
nothing  but  a  political  weapon.  The  mass  of  the  population  of 
his  own  realm  was  still  pagan  in  their  very  hearts.  Annually 
the  Poles  assembled  on  the  day  on  which  their  idols  had  been 
thrown  into  the  rivers  or  burnt,  and  celebrated  the  memory  of 
their  gods  by  dismal  dirges,1  and  the  simplest  rules  of  Christian 
morals  could  be  enforced  only  by  the  application  of  the  most 
barbarous  punishments.  Yea,  under  the  political  disturbances 
which  occurred  after  the  death  of  Mieczyslav  II.,  1034,  a  general 
outburst  of  heathenism  took  place  throughout  the  Polish  kingdom, 
and  it  took  a  long  time  before  it  was  fully  put  down. 

i  Grimm:  Deuteche  MytWogie,  EL  733. 


134  FOUKTH  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 


§  35.  The  Conversim  of  the  Bulgarians. 


PORPHYBOGENITUS:  Life  of  Basilius  Macedo,  in  Hist. 

Byzant.  Cbntinuatorespost  Theophanem.  Greek  and  Latin,  Paris,  1685. 
PHOTII  Epistola,  ed.  Eichard.  Montacutius.    London,  1647. 
NICHOLAS  I.  :  Eesponsaad  ConwltaBulgarvrum,  in  MANSI:  Coll  Condi., 

Tom.  XV.,  pp.  401-434;  and  in  HABDUEST:  CUL  Conctt.,  V,,  pp. 

353-386. 
A.  PICHLER:  Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Tremmng  smschen  dem  Orient  und 

OcGident.    Munchen,  1864,  L,  pp.  192  sqq. 
Comp.  the  biographies  of  C  YBILLTJS  and  METHODIUS,  mentioned  in  J  34, 

p.  128. 

The  Bulgarians  were  of  Turanian  descent,  but,  having  lived 
for  centuries  among  Slavic  nations,  they  had  adopted  Slavic 
language,  religion,  customs  and  habits.  Occupying  the  plains 
between  the  Danube  and  the  Balkan  range,  they  made  frequent 
inroads  into  the  territory  of  the  Byzantine  empire.  In  813  they 
conquered  Adrianople  and  carried  a  number  of  Christians,  among 
whom  was  the  bishop  himself,  as  prisoners  to  Bulgaria.  Here 
these  Christian  prisoners  formed  a  congregation  and  began  to 
labor  for  the  conversion  of  their  captors,  though  not  with  any 
great  success,  as  it  would  seem,  since  the  bishop  was  martyred. 
But  in  861  a  sister  of  the  Bulgarian  prince,  Bogoris,  who  had 
been  carried  as  a  prisoner  to  Constantinople,  and  educated  there 
in  the  Christian  faith,  returned  to  her  native  country,  and  her 
exertions  for  the  conversion  of  her  brother  at  last  succeeded. 

Methodius  was  sent  to  her  aid,  and  a  picture  he  painted  of  the 
last  judgment  is  said  to  have  made  an  overwhelming  impression 
on  Bogoris,  and  determined  him  to  embrace  Christianity.  He 
was  baptized  in  863,  and  entered  immediately  in  correspondence 
with  Photius,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople.  His  baptism, 
however,  occasioned  a  revolt  among  his  subjects,  and  the  hor- 
rible punishment,  which  he  inflicted  upon  the  rebels,  shows  how 
little  as  yet  he  had  understood  the  teachings  of  Christianity, 

Meanwhile  Greek  missionaries,  mostly  monks,  had  entered  the 
country,  but  they  were  intriguing,  arrogant,  and  produced  nothing 


2  36.  THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  MAGYAKS.  135 

but  confusion  among  the  people.  In  865  Bogoris  addressed  him- 
self to  Pope  Nicolas  I*,  asking  for  Roman  missionaries,  and 
laying  before  the  Pope  one  hundred  and  six  questions  con- 
cerning Christian  doctrines,  morals  and  ritual,  which  he  wished 
to  have  answered.  The  Pope  sent  two  bishops  to  Bulgaria, 
and  gave  Bogoris  very  elaborate  and  sensible  answers  to  his 
questions. 

Nevertheless,  the  Roman  mission  did  not  succeed  either. 
The  Bulgarians  disliked  to  submit  to  any  foreign  authority. 
They  desired  the  establishment  of  an  independent  national 
church,  but  this  was  not  to  be  gained  either  from  Rome  or 
from  Constantinople.  Finally  the  Byzantine  emperor,  Basi- 
lius  Macedo,  succeeded  in  establishing  Greek  bishops  and  a  Greek 
archbishop  in  the  country,  and  thus  the  Bulgarian  church  came 
under  the  authority  of  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  but  its 
history  up  to  this  very  day  has  been  a  continuous  struggle 
against  this  authority.  The  church  is  now  ruled  by  a  Holy 
Synod,  with  an  independent  exarch. 

Fearful  atrocities  of  the  Turks  against  the  Christians  gave 
rise  io  the  Russo-Turkish  war  in  1877,  and  resulted  in  the  in- 
dependence of  Bulgaria,  which  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878 
was  constituted  Into  "an  autonomous  and  tributary  principality 
under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan,1'  but  with  a  Christian 
government  and  a  national  militia.  Religious  proselytism.  is 
prohibited,  and  religious  school-books  must  be  previously  exam- 
ined by  the  Holy  Synod.  But  Protestant  missionaries  are  at 
work  among  the  people,  and  practically  enjoy  full  liberty. 

§  36.  The  Conversion  of  the  Magyars. 

JOH.  DB  THWBOOZ:  Chronica  Hungarorum,  in  Schwandtner:  Scriptorcs 

Serum  ffungwriwrum,  I.    Vienna,  1746-8. 
VITA  S.  STEPHAETI,  in  Act.  jSanctor.  September. 
VITA  S.  ADALBEKTI,  in  Mmum&tit.  Oennan.    IV. 
HORVATH  :  History  of  Hungary.    Pest,  1842-46. 

.  THEINER  :  Monwmenfa  vetera  historic*  Hungarian  taeram  ttluttran* 

tia.    Rom.,  1859, 1860, 2  Tom.  fol. 


136  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

The  Magyars,  belonging  to  the  Turanian  family  of  nations, 
and  allied  to  the  Finns  and  the  Turks,  penetrated  into  Europe 
in  the  ninth  century,  and  settled,  in  884,  in  the  plains  between 
the  Bug  and  the  Sereth,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Danube.  On 
the  instigation  of  the  Byzantine  emperor,  Leo  the  Wise,  they 
attacked  the  Bulgarians,  and  completely  defeated  them.  The 
military  renown  they  thus  acquired  gave  them  a  new  opportunity. 
The  Frankish  king  Arnulf  invoked  their  aid  against  Swatopluk, 
the  ruler  of  the  Moravian  empire.  Swatopluk,  too,  was  defeated, 
and  his  realm  was  divided  between  the  victors.  The  Magyars, 
retracing  their  steps  across  the  Carpathian  range,  settled  in  the 
plains  around  the  Theiss  and  the  Danube,  the  country  which 
their  forefathers,  the  Huns,  once  had  ruled  over,  the  present 
Hungary.  They  were  a  wild  and  fierce  race,  worshipping  one 
supreme  god  under  the  guise  of  various  natural  phenomena: 
the  sky,  the  river,  etc.  They  had  no  temples  and  no  priesthood, 
and  their  sacrifices  consisted  of  animals  only,  mostly  horses. 
But  the  oath  was  kept  sacred  among  them,  and  their  marriages 
were  monogamous,  and  inaugurated  with  religious  rites. 

The  first  acquaintance  with  Christianity  the  Maygars  made 
through  their  connections  with  the  Byzantine  court,  without  any 
further  consequences.  But  after  settling  in  Hungary,  where  they 
were  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  Christian  nations,  they  were 
compelled,  in  950,  by  the  emperor,  Otto  I.,  to  allow  the  bishop 
of  Passau  to  send  missionaries  into  their  country;  and  various 
circumstances  contributed  to  make  this  mission  a  rapid  and  com- 
plete success.  Their  prince,  Geyza,  had  married  a  daughter  of 
the  Transylvanian  prince,  Gyula,  and  this  princess,  Savolta,  had 
been  educated  in  the  Christian  faith.  Thus  Geyza  felt  friendly 
towards  the  Christians;  and  as  soon  as  this  became  known, 
Christianity  broke  forth  from  the  mass  of  the  population  like 
flowers  from  the  earth  when  spring  has  come.  The  people  which, 
the  Magyars  had  subdued  when  settling  in  Hungary,  and  the 
captives  whom  they  had  carried  along  with  them  from  Bulgaria 
and  Moravia,  were  Christians.  Hitherto  these  Christians  had 


?  36.  THE  CONVEKSIOSr  OF  THE  MAGYAES.  137 

concealed  their  religion  from  fear  of  their  rulers,  and  their  chil- 
dren had  been  baptized  clandestinely;  but  now  they  assembled 
in  great  multitudes  around  the  missionaries,  and  the  entrance  of 
Christianity  into  Hungary  looked  like  a  triumphal  march.1 

Political  disturbances  afterwards  interrupted  this  progress,  but 
only  for  a  short  time.  Adalbert  of  Prague  visited  the  country, 
and  made  a  great  impression.  He  baptized  Geyza's  son,  Vbik, 
born  in  961,  and  gave  him  the  name  of  Stephanus,  994.  Adal- 
bert's pupil,  Eodla,  remained  for  a  longer  period  in  the  country, 
and  was  held  in  so  high  esteem  by  the  people,  that  they  after- 
wards would  not  let  him  go.  When  Stephanus  ascended  the 
throne  in  997,  he  determined  at  once  to  establish  Christianity  as 
the  sole  religion  of  his  realm,  and  ordered  that  all  Magyars 
should  be  baptized,  and  that  all  Christian  slaves  should  be 
set  free.  This,  however,  caused  a  rising  of  the  pagan  party 
under  the  head  of  Kuppa,  a  relative  of  Stephanus;  but  Kuppa 
was  defeated  at  Veszprim,  and  the  order  had  to  be  obeyed. 

Stephanus'  marriage  with  Gisela,  a  relative  of  the  emperor, 
Otto  III.,  brought  him  in  still  closer  contact  with  the  German 
empire,  and  he,  like  Mieczyslav  of  Poland,  borrowed  the  whole 
ecclesiastical  organization  from  the  German  church.  Ten  bish- 
oprics were  formed,  and  placed  under  the  authority  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Gran  on  the  Danube  (which  is  still  the  seat  of  the 
primate  of  Hungary);  churches  were  built,  schools  and  monaste- 
ries were  founded,  and  rich  revenues  were  procured  for  their  sup- 
port; the  clergy  was  declared  the  first  order  in  rank,  and  the  Latin 
language  was  made  the  official  language  not  only  in  ecclesiastical, 
but  also  in  secular  matters.  As  a  reward  for  his  zeal,  Stephanus 
waS  presented  by  Pope  Silvester  II.  with  a  golden  crown,  and, 
in  the  year  1000,  he  was  solemnly  crowned  king  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Gran,  while  a  papal  bull  conferred  on  him  the  title  of 
"His  Apostolic  Majesty."  And,  indeed,  Stephanus  was  the 
apostle  of  the  Magyars.  As  most  of  the  priests  and  monks, 

1  See  the  letter  from  Bishop  Pilgrin  of  Passau  to  Pope  Benedict  VI  in 
Mauri,  Qmnl.  I. 


138  FOUBTH  PEKIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

called  from  Germany,  did  not  understand  the  language  of  the 
people,  the  king  himself  travelled  about  from  town  to  town, 
preached,  prayed,  and  exhorted  all  to  keep  the  Lord's  Day,  the 
fast,  and  other  Christian  duties.  Nevertheless,  it  took  a  long 
time  before  Christianity  really  took  hold  of  the  Magyars,  chiefly 
on  account  of  the  deep  gulf  created  between  the  priests  and 
their  flocks,  partly  by  the  difference  of  language,  partly  by  the 
exceptional  position  which  Stephanus  had  given  the  clergy  in 
the  community,  and  which  the  clergy  soon  learned  to  utilize 
for  selfish  purposes.  Twice  during  the  eleventh  century  there 
occurred  heavy  relapses  into  paganism;  in  1045,  under  King 
Andreas,  and  in  1060,  under  King  Bela. 

§  37.  The  Christianization  of  Russia. 

NESTOR  (monk  of  Kieff,  the  oldest  Russian  annalist,  d.  5116) :  AnnaZes, 
or  Chronicon  (from  the  building  of  the  Babylonian  tower  to  1093). 
Continued  by  NIPHONTBS  (Nifon)  from  1116-1157,  and  by  others 
to  1676.  Complete  ed.  in  Russ  by  Pogodin,  1841,  and  with  a  Latin 
version  and  glossary  by  Ir.  MiMosisch,  Vindobon,  1860.  German 
translation  by  Schfozer,  Gottingen,  1802-'9,  5  vols.  (incomplete). 

J.  G.  STBITTER  :  Memories  populorum  olim  ad  Danubium,  etc.,  incolentium 
ex  £yzant.  Script.  Petropoli,  1771.  4  vols.  A  collection  of  the 
Byzantine  sources. 

K.  M.  KABAMSIK:  History  of  Russia,  12  vols.  St.  Petersburg,  1816-29, 
translated  into  German  and  French. 

PH.  STBAHL:  Bettrdgezurruss.Zirchen-Geschichte(vQl.I.).  Halle,  1827; 
and  Geschichte  d.  russ  Kirche  (vol.  L).  Halle,  1830  (incomplete). 

A.  N.  MOURAVTEFF  (late  chamberlain  to  the  Czar  and  TJnder-Procurator 
of  the  Most  Holy  Synod) :  A  History  of  the  Church  of  Ruwa  (to  the 
founding  of  the  Holy  Synod  in  1721).  St.  Petersburg,  1840,  translated 
into  English  by  Eev.  E.  W.  Blackmore.  Oxford,  1862. 

A.  P.  STANLEY:  Lectures  on  the  Eastern  Church.  Lee.  IK.-XIL  Lon- 
don, 1862.  , 

L.  BOISSABD  :  Ueglise  de  fiussie.    Paris,  1867,  2  vols. 

The  legend  traces  Christianity  in  Russia  back  to  the  Apostle 
St.  Andrew,  who  is  especially  revered  by  the  Russians.  Mou- 
ravieff  commences  his  history  of  the  Russian  church  with  these 
words:  "  The  Russian  church,  like  the  other  Orthodox  churches 
of  the  East,  had  an  apostle  for  its  founder.  St.  Andrew,  the 


§  37.  THE  CHRISTIANIZATION  OF  EUSSIA.  139 

first  called  of  the  Twelve,  hailed  with  his  blessing  long  before- 
hand the  destined  introduction  of  Christianity  into  our  country. 
Ascending  up  and  penetrating  by  the  Dniepr  into  the  deserts  of 
Scythia,  he  planted  the  first  cross  on  the  hills  of  KieflJ  and  'See 
you/  said  he  to  his  disciples, ' those  hills?  On  those  hills  shall 
shine  the  light  of  divine  grace.  There  shall  be  here  a  great  city, 
and  God  shall  have  in  it  many  churches  to  His  name/  Such 
are  the  words  of  the  holy  Nestor  that  point  from  whence  Chris- 
tian Russia  has  sprung." 

This  tradition  is  an  expansion  of  the  report  that  Andrew 
labored  and  died  a  martyr  in  Scythia,1  and  nothing  more. 

In  the  ninth  century  the  Russian  tribes,  inhabiting  the  Eastern 
part  of  Europe,  were  gathered  together  under  the  rule  of  Ruric, 
a  Varangian  prince,2  who  from  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  penetrated 
into  the  centre  of  the  present  Russia,  and  was  voluntarily  accepted, 
if  not  actually  chosen.by  the  tribes  as  their  chief.  He  is  regarded 
as  the  founder  of  the  Russian  empire,  A.D.  862,  which  in  1862 
celebrated  its  millennial  anniversary.  About  the  same  time  or 
a  little  later  the  Russians  became  somewhat  acquainted  with 
Christianity  through  their  connections  with  the  Byzantine  em- 
pire. The  Eastern  church,  however,  never  developed  any 
great  missionary  activity,  and  when  Photius,  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  in  his  circular  letter  against  the  Roman  see, 
speaks  of  the  Russians  as  already  converted  at  his  time  (867),  a 
few  years  after  the  founding  of  the  empire,  he  certainly  exagge- 
rates. When,  in  945,  peace  was  concluded  between  the  Russian 
grand-duke,  Igor,  and  the  Byzantine  emperor,  some  of  the  Rus- 
sian soldiers  took  the  oath  in  the  name  of  Christ,  but  by  far  the 
greatest  number  swore  by  Perun,  the  old  Russian  god.  In  Kieff, 
on  the  Dniepr,  the  capital  of  the  Russian  realm,  there  was  at  that 
time  a  Christian  church,  dedicated  to  Elijah,  and  in  955  the 
grand-duchess,  Olga,  went  to  Constantinople  and  was  baptized. 

1  Euseb.  IIL 1. 

*  The  Varangians  were  a  tribe  of  piratical  Northmen,  who  made  the  Slavs 
and  Finns  tributary. 


140  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

She  did  not  succeed,  however,  in  persuading  her  son,  Svatoslav, 
to  embrace  the  Christian  faith. 

The  progress  of  Christianity  among  the  Eussians  was  slow 
until  the  grand-duke  VLADIMIR  (980-1015),  a  grandson  of  Olga, 
and  revered  as  Isapostolos  ("  Equal  to  an  Apostle  ")  with  one 
sweep  established  it  as  the  religion  of  the  country.  The  narra- 
tive of  this  event  by  Nestor  is  very  dramatic.  Envoys  from  the 
Greek  and  the  Eoman  churches,  from  the  Mohammedans  and 
the  Jews  (settled  among  the  Chazares)  came  to  Vladimir  to  per- 
suade him  to  leave  his  old  gods.  He  hesitated  and  did  not  know 
which  of  the  new  religions  he  should  choose.  Finally  he  deter- 
mined to  send  wise  men  from  among  his  own  people  to  the  vari- 
ous places  to  investigate  the  matter.  The  envoys  were  so  power- 
fully impressed  by  a  picture  of  the  last  judgment  and  by  the 
service  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinople,  that  the 
question  at  once  was  settled  in  favor  of  the  religion  of  the  By- 
zantine court* 

Vladimir,  however,  would  not  introduce  it  without  compensa- 
tion. He  was  staying  at  Cherson  in  the  Crimea,  which  he  had 
just  taken  and  sacked,  and  thence  he  sent  word  to  the  emperor 
Basil,  that  he  had  determined  either  to  adopt  Christianity  and 
receive  the  emperor's  sister,  Anne,  in  marriage,  or  to  go  to  Con- 
stantinople and  do  to  that  city  as  he  had  done  to  Cherson.  He 
married  Anne,  and  was  baptized  on  the  day  of  his  wedding, 
A.D.  988. 

As  soon  as  he  was  baptized  preparations  were  made  for  the 
baptism  of  his  people.  The  wooden  image  of  Perun  was  dragged 
at  a  horse's  tail  through  the  country,  soundly  flogged  by  all 
passers-by,  and  finally  thrown  into  the  Dniepr.  Next,  at  a  given 
hour,  all  the  people  of  Kieff,  men,  women  and  children,  descended 
into  the  river,  while  the  grand  Duke  kneeled,  and  the  Christian 
priests  read  the  prayers  from  the  top  of  the  cliffs  on  the  shore. 
JSTestor,  the  Eussian  monk  and  annalist,  thus  describes  the  scene: 
"Some  stood  in  the  water  up  to  their  necks,  others  up  to  their 
breasts,  holding  their  young  children  in  their  aims;  the  priesta 


g  37.  THE  COaEISTIANIZATION  OF  EUSSIA.  141 

read  the  prayers  from  the  shore,  naming  at  once  whole  compa- 
nies by  the  same  name.  It  was  a  sight  wonderfully  curious  and 
beautiful  to  behold;  and  when  the  people  were  baptized,  each 
returned  to  his  own  home." 

Thus  Hie  Eussian  nation  was  converted  in  wholesale  style  to 
Christianity  by  despotic  power.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  su- 
preme influence  of  the  ruler  and  the  slavish  submission  of 
the  subjects  in  that  country.  Nevertheless,  at  its  first  entrance 
in  Eussia,  Christianity  penetrated  deeper  into  the  life  of  the 
people  than  it  did  in  any  other  countiy,  without,  however, 
bringing  about  a  corresponding  thorough  moral  transformation. 
Only  a  comparatively  short  period  elapsed,  before  a  complete 
union  of  the  forms  of  religion  and  the  nationality  took  place. 
Every  event  in  the  history  of  the  nation,  yea,  every  event  in 
the  life  of  the  individual  was  looked  upon  from  a  religious  point 
of  view,  and  referred  to  some  distinctly  religious  idea.  The 
explanation  of  this  striking  phenomenon  is  due  in  part  to  CyrilPs 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Slavic  language,  which  had 
been  driven  out  from  Moravia  and  Bohemia  by  the  Eoman 
priests,  and  was  now  brought  from  Bulgaria  into  Russia,  where 
it  took  root.  While  the  Eoman  church  always  insisted  upon  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  Latin  translation  of  the  Bible  and  the  Latin 
language  in  divine  service,  the  Greek  church  always  allowed  the 
use  of  the  vernacular.  Under  its  auspices  there  were  produced 
translations  into  the  Coptic,  Syriac,  Armenian,  and  Slavic  lan- 
guages, and  the  effects  of  this  principle  were,  at  least  in  Eussia, 
most  beneficial.  During  the  reign  of  Vladimir's  successor,  Ja- 
roslaff,  1019-1054,  not  only  were  churches  and  monasteries  and 
schools  built  all  over  the  country,  but  Greek  theological  books 
were  translated,  and  the  Eussian  church  had,  at  an  early  date,  a 
religious  literature  in  the  native  tongue  of  the  people.  Jaroslaff, 
by  his  celebrated  code  of  kws,  became  the  Justinian  of  Eussia. 

The  Czars  and  people  of  Eussia  have  ever  since  fidthfully 
adhered  to  the  Oriental  church  which  grew  with  tike  growth  of 
the  empire  all  along  the  Northern  line  of  two  Continents.  As 


142  FOUETK  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

in  the  West,  so  in  Russia,  monasticism  was  the  chief  institution 
for  the  spread  of  Christianity  among  heathen  savages.  Hilarion 
(afterwards  Metropolitan),  Anthony,  Theodosius,  Sergius,  Laza- 
rus, are  prominent  names  in  the  early  history  of  Russian  monas- 
ticism. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  Russian  church  is  isolated  from 
the  main  current  of  history,  and  almost  barren  of  events  till  the 
age  of  Nikon  and  Peter  the  Great.    At  first  she  was  dependent 
on  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople.     In  1325  Moscow  was 
founded,  and  became,  in  the  place  of  Kieff,  the  Russian  Rome, 
with  a  metropolitan,  who  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople  became 
independent  (1461),  and  a  century  later  was  raised  to  the  dig- 
nity of  one  of  the  five  patriarchs  of  the  Eastern  Church  (1587). 
But  Peter  the  Great  made  the  Northern  city  of  his  own  found- 
ing the  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  the  political  metropolis,  and 
transferred  the  authority  of  the  patriarchate  of  Moscow  to  the 
"Holy  Synod"  (1721),  which  permanently  resides  in  St.  Peters- 
burg and  constitutes  the  highest  ecclesiastical  judicatory  of 
Russia  under  the  csesaropapal  rule  of  the  Czar,  the  most  power- 
ful rival  of  the  Roman  Pope. 


38.  MOHAMMEDANISM     LITERATURE.  143 


CHAPTER  HI. 

MOHAMMEDANISM  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  CHRISTIANITY.1 

"  There  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  apostle."—  Tht 
Koran. 

"There  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  the 
man  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all." — 1  Tim.  ii.  5,  6. 

§  38.  Literature. 

See  A.  SPRBKGEE'S  JBibliotheca  Onentalls  Sprengena.no,.    Giessen,  1857, 
W.  MUIR  :  Life  of  Mahomet,  Vol.  L,  ch.  1.   Muir  discusses  especially  the 

value  of  Mohammedan  traditions. 
OH.  FBIEDBICI:  JBibliotheca  Orientalis.  London  (Triibner  &  Co.)  1875  sqq. 

i.  SOURCES. 

L  The  KORAN  or  AL-KORAN.  The  chief  source.  The  Mohammedan 
Bible,  claiming  to  be  given  by  inspiration  to  Mohammed  during  the 
course  of  twenty  years.  About  twice  as  large  as  the  New  Testament 
The  best  Arabic  MSB.,  often  most  beautifully  written,  are  in  the 
Mosques  of  Cairo,  Damascus,  Constantinople,  and  Paris ;  the  largest 
collection  in  the  library  of  the  Khedive  in  Cairo.  Printed  editions  in 
Arabic  by  HunKELMANK  (Hamburg,  1694) ;  MOLLA  OSMAN  ISMAEL 
(St.  Petersburg,  1787  and  1803) ;  G.  FLTJGEL  (Leipz.,  1834) ;  revised 
by  REDSLOB  (1837, 1842, 1858).  Arabice  etLatine,  ed.  L.  MARACCIUS, 
Patav.,  1698,  2  vols.,  fol.  (Alcorani  textus  universus,  with  notes  and 
refutation).  A  lithographed  edition  of  the  Arabic  text  appeared  at 
Lucknow  in  India,  1878  (A.  H.  1296). 

The  standard  English  translations :  in  prose  by  GEO.  SALE  (first  publ., 
Lond.,  1734,  also  1801,  1825,  PMlad.,  1833,  etc.),  wtth  a  learned  and 
valuable  preliminary  discourse  and  notes;  in  the  metre,  but  without  the 

1  Mahomet  and  Mahometanim,  is  the  usual,  but  Mohammad,  Muhammad,  or 
Mohammed,  Mohammedanism,  is  the  more  correct  spelling  in  English.  Sale, 
Dentsch,  B.  Smith,  Khan  Bahador,  and  others,  spell  Mohammed;  Sprenger, 
Mohammad;  Noldeke,  Muhammed;  Gibbon,  Carlyle  and  Muir,  retain  Mahomet* 
The  word  means:  the  Praised)  the  Glorified,  the  Ittwfrious;  but  according  to 
Sprenger  and  Deutsch,  the  Dewred,  perhaps  with  reference  to  the  Messianic 
interpretation  of  "the  Desire  of  all  nations/'  Hagg.  2:  7.  See  on  the  name, 
Sprenger,  1. 155  sqq.,  and  Deutsch,  p.  68  note. 


144  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

rhyme,  of  the  original  by  J.  M.  RODWELL  (Lond.,  1861,  2d  ed.  1876, 
the  Suras  arranged  in  chronological  order).  A  new  transl.  in  prose  by 
E.  H.  PALME&  (Oxford,  1880,  2  vols.)  in  M.  Mailer's  "Sacred  Books 
of  the  East."  Parts  <>re  admirably  translated  by  EDWARD  W.  LANE. 
French  translation  by  SAVABY,  Paris,  1783,  2  vols.;  enlarged  edition 
by  GABCHT  DB  TASSY,  1829,  in  3  vols.;  another  by  M.  KASIMIBSKI, 
Paris,  1847,  and  1873- 

German  translations  by  WAHL  (Halle,  1828),  L.  ULLMAira  (Bielefeld, 
i840,  4th  ed.  1857),  and  parts  by  HAMMER  vosr  PXTBGSTALL  (in  the 
Fimdgruben  des  Orients),  and  SPBENGEB  (in  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des 
Mohammad). 

2.  Secondary  sources  on  the  Life  of  Moh.  and  the  origin  of  Isl£m  are 
the  numerous  poems  of  contemporaries,  especially  in  IBBT  ISHAC, 
and  the  collections  of  the  sayings  of  Moh.,  especially  the  SAHIH 
(i.  e.  The  True,  the  Genuine)  of  AZbuGhari  (d.  871).  Also  the  early 
Commentaries  on  the  Koran,  which  explain  difficult  passages,  recon- 
cile the  contradictions,  and  insert  traditional  sayings  and  legends. 
See  Sprenger,  IIL  CIV.sqq. 

n.  WORKS  oisr  THE  KORAN. 

TH.  NOLDEKE:  Geschichte  des  Quor&ns,  (History  of  the  Koran),  Gottingen, 

1860 ;  and  his  art.  in  the  "  Encycl.  Brit.,"  9th  ed.  XVI.  597-606. 
GABCTET  DE  TASSY:  L'Islamime  d'apre?  k  Goran  Fenseignement  doctrinal 

et  la  pratique,  3d  ed.    Paris,  1874. 
GTTSTAV  WEIL:  Ifist.  MM&che  Einldtung  in  den  Kwan*    Bielefeld  und 

Leipz.,  1844,  2d  ed.,  1878. 
SIB  WILLIAM  MuiB:  The  Goran.    Its  Composition  and  Teaching;  and 

the  Testimony  it  bears  to  the  Holy  /Scriptures.    (Allahabad,  1860), 

3d  ed,  Lond.,  1878. 
SPBENGEB,  1.  c.,  HI.,  pp.  xviii.-cxx. 

m.  BIOGEAPHIES  OF  MOHAMMED. 

1.  Mohammedan  biographers. 

ZOHBI  (the  oldest,  died  after  the  Hegira  124). 

IBIT  IsHio  (or  IBNT  ISHAK,  d.  A.  H.  151,  or  A.  D.  773),  ed.  in  Arabic 
from  MSS.  by  Wustenfeld,  Gott,  1858-60,  transkted  by  Weil,  Stuttg., 
1864. 

IBIST  (Tbni)  HTSH^M  (d.  A.  H.  213,  A.D.  835),  also  ed*by  Wustenfeld, 
and  translated  by  Wdl>  1864 

KATIB  AL  WAQTJIDI  (or  W!CKEDEE,  WACKIDI,  d.  at  Bagdad  A.  H.  207, 
A.  D.  829),  a  man  of  prodigious  learning,  who  collected  the  tradi- 
tions, and  left  six  hundred  chests  of  books  (Sprenger,  HI.,  LXXL), 
and  his  secretary,  MTTKAMMAP  IBN  SlAD  (d.  A.  EL  230,  A.  D.  852), 
who  arranged,  abridged,  and  completed  the  biographical  works  of 


238  MOHAMMEDANISM.    LITERATDEE.  145 

his  master  in  twelve  or  fifteen  for.  vols. ;  the  first  vol.  contains  the  biog- 
raphy of  Moh.,  and  is  preferred  by  Muir  and  Sprenger  to  all  others. 
German  transl.  by  WELLHAUSEIST  :  Muhammed  in  Medina.     From 
the  Arabic  of  VaUdi.    Berlin,  1882. 
TABARI  (or  TIBREE,  d.  A.  H.  310,  A.  D.  932),  called  by  Gibbon  "the 

Livy  of  the  Arabians." 

Muir  says  (I.,  GUI.) :  "To  the  three  biographies  by  IBN*  HISHAM,  by 
WiCKiDi,  and  his  secretary,  and  by  TABARI,  the  judicious  historian  of 
Mahomet  will,  as  his  original  authorities,  confine  himself.  He  will  also 
receive,  with  a  similar  respect,  such  traditions  in  the  general  collections 
of  the  earliest  traditionists — Bokh&ri,  Muslim,  Tirmidzi,  etc., — as  may 
bear  upon  his  subject.  But  he  will  reject  as  evidence  all  later  authors." 
ABULFEDA  (or  ABULFIDA,  d.  1331),  once  considered  the  chief  authority, 

now  set  aside  by  much  older  sources. 

*SYED  AHMED  KHAN  BAHADOR  (member  of  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society) : 
A  Series  of  Essays  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed.  London  (Trubner  & 
Co.),  1870.  He  wrote  also  a  "Mohammedan  Commentary  on  the 
Holy  Bible."  He  begins  with  the  sentence:  "In,  nomine  Dd  Jfiseri- 
cordis  Miseratoris.  Of  all  the  innumerable  wonders  of  the  universe, 
the  most  marvellous  is  religion" 

SYED  AMEER  ALI,  MOXTLVE  (a  Mohammedan  lawyer,  and  brother  of 
the  former) :  A  Critical  Examination  of  the  Life  and  Teachings  of 
Mohammed.    London  1873.    A  defense  of  Moh.  chiefly  drawn  irom 
Ibn-Hishfim  (and  Ibn-al  Athir  (1160-1223). 
2.  Christian  Biographies. 
DEAJST  PRIDEAUX  (d.  1724) :  Life  of  Mahomet,  1697, 7th  ed.  Lond.,  1718. 

Very  unfavorable. 
COOTTT  BOXTLINVILLIERS  :  The  Life  of  Mahomet.  Transl.  from  the  French. 

LonA,  1731. 

JEAK  GACKNTER  (d.  1740) :  La  me  de  Mahomet,  1732,  2  vote.,  etc.  Am- 
sterd.  1748,  3  vols.  Chiefly  from  Abulfeda  and  the  Sonna.  He  also 
translated  Abulfeda. 

*GIBBOK:  Decline  and  Fatt,  etc.  (1788),  chs.  50-52.  Although  not  an 
Arabic  scholar,  Gibbon  made  the  best  use  of  the  sources  then  acces- 
sible in  Latin,  French,  and  English,  and  gives  a  brilliant  and,  upon 
the  whole,  impartial  picture. 

*GusTAV  WEIL:  Mohammed  der  Prophet,  sein  Lebrn  und  seine  lehre. 
Stuttgart,  1843*  Comp.  also  his  tonslation  of  Ion  Ish&c,  and  Ion 
ffishdm,  Stuttgart,  1864,  2  vols.;  and  his  Siblische  Legenden  der 
Muselmanner  aus  araUschen,  Qpetten  und  mti  jtid.  Sagen  verglichen. 
Frcf.,1845.  The  last  is  also  transl.  into  English. 
TH.  CABLYLB:  The  Sera  as  Prophet,  in  his  Heross  Hero-  Worship  and 


L46  FOUBTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

the  Heroic  in  History.  London,  1840.  A  mere  sketch,  but  full  of 
genius  and  stimulating  hints-  He  says :  "  We  have  chosen  Mahomet 
not  as  the  most  eminent  prophet,  but  as  the  one  we  are  freest  to 
speak  of.  He  is  by  no  means  the  truest  of  prophets,  but  1  esteem 
him  a  true  one.  Farther,  as  there  is  no  danger  of  our  becoming, 
any  of  us,  Mahometans,  I  mean  to  say  all  the  good  of  him  I  justly 
can.  It  is  the  way  to  get  at  his  secret." 

WASHINGTON  IRVING  :  Ma/tomet  and  His  Followers.  N.  Y.,  1850.  2  vola, 

GEORGE  BUSH:  The  Life  of  Mohammed.    New  York  (Harpers  J. 

*SiR  WILLIAM  MUIR  (of  the  Bengal  Civil  Service) :  The  Life  of  Mahomet. 
With  introductory  chapters  on  the  original  sources  for  the  biography  of 
Mahometj  and  on  the  pre-Isfamite  history  of  Arabia.  Lond.,  1858-1861, 
4  vols.  Learned,  able,  and  feir.  Abridgement  in  1  vol.  Lond.,  1877. 

*A.  SPRENGBR:  First  an  English  biography  printed  at  Allahabad,  1851, 
and  then  a  more  complete  one  in  German,  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre 
des  Mohammad.  Nach  bisher  grossteniheils  unbenutzten  Quellen.  Ber- 
lin, 1861-65,  2d  ed.  1869,  3  vols.  This  work  is  based  on  original 
and  Arabic  sources,  and  long  personal  intercourse  with  Mohamme- 
dans in  India,  but  is  not  a  well  digested  philosophical  biography. 

*THEOD.  NOLDEKE:  Das  Lebem,  Muhammeds.  Hanover,  1863.  Comp.  his 
elaborate  art.  in  Vol.  XVIII.  of  Herzog's  Heal-Encyd.,  first  ed. 

E.  EENAN  :  Mahomet,  et  ks  origines  de  Fisfamime,  in  his  "  Etudes  de  This- 
toire  relig ,"  7th  ed.  Par.,  1864. 

BARTHELEMY  SAINT-HILAIRE:  Mahomet  etkCoran.  Paris,  1865.  Based 
on  Sprenger  and  Muir. 

CH.  SCHOLL  :  L' Islam  et  son  Fondateur.    Paris,  1874. 

E.  BOSWORTH  SMITH  (Assistant  Master  in  Harrow  School) :  Mohammed 
and  Mohammedanism.  Lond.  1874,  reprinted  New  York,  1875. 

J.  W.  H.  STOBART:  Islam  and  its  Founder.    London,  1876. 

J.  WELLHATTSEN:  Art.  Moh.  in  the  "Encycl.  Brit."  9th  ed.  vol.  XVI. 
545-565. 

IV.  HISTORY  OP  THE  ARABS  AND  TURKS. 

*Jos.  vow  HAMMER-PURGSTALL:  Geschichte  des  omanischen  Seiches. 
Pesth,  1827-34, 10  vols.  A  smaller  ed.  in  4  vols.  This  standard  work 
is  the  result  of  thirty  years'  labor,  and  brings  the  history  down  to  1774 
By  the  same:  Ltteratwrgeschichte  der  Araber.  Wien,  1850-'57>  7  vols. 

*GL  WEIL  :  Oesch.  der  Chalifen.    Mannheim,  1846-61,  3  vola. 

*CAUSSIN  DE  PERCEVAL:  fissai  sur  Fhistoire  des  Arabes.  Paris,  1848, 3  vols. 

*EDWARD  A.  FREEMAN  (D.C.L.,  LL,D.) :  History  and  Conquests  of  the 
Saracens.  Lond.,  1856,  3d  ed.  1876. 

EGBERT  DTTRIE  OSBORN  (Major  of  the  Bengal  Staff  Corps) :  Islam  under 
the  Arabs.  London.,  1876;  Islam  under  the  KhaJK/s  of  Baghdad. 
London,  1877. 

SIR  EDWARD  S.  CREASY:  History  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  from  the  Begto 


g  38.  MOHAMMEDANISM.    LITERATURE.  147 

ning  of  their  Empire  to  the  present  Time.  Lond.,  2d  ed.  1877.  Chiefly 

founded  on  von  Hammer. 
TH.  NOLDEKE :  Qeschichte  der  Perser  und  Araber  zur  Zett  der  fiasaniden. 

Aus  der  arabiscfien  Chronik  des  Tdbari  ubersetzt.    Leyden,  1879. 
Sir  WM.  MuiR :  Annals  of  the  Early  Caliphate.    London  1883. 

V.  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDANS. 

JOH.  LUDWIG  BUBCKHARDT:  Travels  in  Nubia,  1819;  Travels  in  Syria 
and  Palestine,  1823 ;  Notes  on  the  Bedouins,  1830. 

*EDW.  W.  LANE:  Modern  Egyptians.  Lond.,  1836, 5th  ed.  1871,  in  2  yols. 

*BlCH.  F.  BURTON:  Personal  narrative  of  a  Pilgrimage  to  ElMedinahand 
Meccah,  Lond.  1856,  3  vols. 

C.  B.  KLUNZINGBR:  Upper  Egypt:  its  Peopk  and  its  Products.    A  de- 
scriptive Account  of  the  Manners,  Customs,  Superstitions,  and  Occupa- 
tions of  the  People  of  the  Nile  Valley,  the  Desert,  and  the  Red  Sea  Coast. 
New  York,  1878.    A  valuable  supplement  to  Lane. 
Books  of  Eastern  Travel,  especially  on  Egypt  and  Turkey.  BAHRDT'S 

Travels  in  Central  Africa  (1857),  PALGRAVE'S  Arabia  (1867),  etc. 

VI.  RELATION  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  TO  JUDAISM. 

*ABRAHAM  GEIGER:  Was  hat  Mohammed  aus  dem  Judenthum  aufgenom- 

menf    Bonn,  1833* 
HARTWIG  HIRSCHFELD  :  Judische  Elemente  im  Koran.    Berlin,  1878. 

VII.  MOHAMMEDANISM  AS  A  RELIGION,  AND  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO 
CHRISTIANITY. 

L.  MARACCI:  Prodromus  ad  refutationem  Akorani.    Rom.,  1691, 4  vols. 

S.  LEE:  Controversial  Tracts  on  Christianity  and  Mahometanism.    1824. 

J.  D6LLINGER  (R.  0.) .  Mohammed's  Religion  nach  ihrer  innern  fhitwicfa 
lung  u.  ihrem  Einfluss  auf  das  Leben  der  Vol&er.  Regensb.  1838. 

A,  M5HLER  (R.  C.) :  Das  Verhaltnm  des  Islam  zum  Christenthum  (in  his 
"  Gesammelte  Schriften  ").  Regensb.,  1839. 

0.  F.  GEROCK:  Versuch  einer  Darstellung  der  Christokgie  des  Koran. 
Hamburg  und  Gotha,  1839. 

J.  H.  NEWMAN  (R.  0.) :  The  Twrfa  in  their  relation  to  Europe  (written  in 
1853),  in  his  "  Historical  Sketches."  London,  1872,  pp.  1-237. 

DEAN  ARTHUR  P.  STANTLE Y :  Mahometanism  and  its  relations  to  the  East- 
ern Church  (in  Lectures  on  the  "History  of  the  Eastern  Church." 
London  and  New  York,  1862,  pp.  360-387).  A  picturesque  sketch. 

DEAN  MILMAN:  History  of  Latin  Christianity,  Book  IV.,  chs.  1  and  2. 
(Vol.  H.  p.  109). 

THEOD.  NSLDEKE:  Art.  Muhammedund  der  Islam,  in  HERZOG'S  "  Beal- 
Encyclop."  Vol.  XVIIL  (1864),  pp.  767-820. 

*EMAK  DBTITSOH:  Islam,  in  his  "liter.  Bemains."  Lond.  and  N.  York, 
1874,  pp.  50-134.  The  article  originally  appeared  in  the  London 


148  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

"  Quarterly  Review  "  for  Oct.  1869,  and  is  also  printed  at  the  end  of 

the  New  York  (Harper)  ed.  of  R  Bosworth  Smith's  Mohammed. 
JSeports  of  the  General  Missionary  Conference  at  Allahabad,  1873. 
J.  MfJHLEiSEsr  ARKOLD  (formerly  chaplain  at  Batavia)  :  Islam:  its  Sis. 

tory,  Character,  and  delation,  to  Christianity.    Lond.,  1874,  3d  ed. 
GUSTAV.  EOSCH:  J)ie  Jesusmythen  des  Islam,  in  the  "Studien  und  Kriti- 

ken."  Gotha,  1876.  (No.  HI.  pp.  409-454). 

MARCUS  DODS:  Mohammed,  Buddha,  and  Christ.    Lond.  2d  ed.  1878. 
CH.  A.  AIKEBT  :  Mohamjnedanism  as  a  Missionary  Religion.    In  the  "  Bib- 

liotheca  Sacra,"  of  Andover  for  1879,  p.  157. 
ARCHBISHOP  TRENCH:  Lectures  on  Mediceval  Church  History  (Lect.  IV. 

45-58).    London,  1877. 
HENRY  H.  JESSUP  (  Amer.  Presbyt.  missionary  at  Beirut)  :  The  Moham- 

medan Missionary  Problem.    Philadelphia,  1879. 
EDOTFARD  SATOTIS  :  Jesus  '  Christ  tfaprte  Mahomet.    Paris  1880. 
G.  P.  BADGER:  Muhdmmed  in  Smith  and  Wace,  III.  951-998. 

§  39.  Statistics  and  Chronological  Table. 

ESTIMATE  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  POPULATION  (According  to  Keith  Johnston), 
In  Asia,     ...........        112,739,000 

In  Africa,     ...........     50,416,000 

In  Europe,        ..........          5,974,000 

Total,       .....  .    169,129,000 


ItfOTT  VMTVT  Kii  A.1JT8  UNDER  0  fjjffiypTA'Nr  GOVERNMEHTS. 

England  in  India  roles  over       .......  41,000,000 

Bussia  in  Central  Asia  rules  over    .......  6,000,000 

France  in  Africa  rules  over        ......  2,000,000 

Holland  in  Java  and  Celebes  rules  over         .....  1,000,000 

Total,      .......       50,000,000 

A.  D.  CHRONOLOGICAL  SURVEY. 

570.  Birth  of  Mohammed,  at  Mecca. 

610.  Mohammed  received  the  visions  of  Gabriel  and  began  his  career  as  a 

prophet.    (Conversion  of  the  Anglo-Saxons). 
622.  The  Hegira,  or  the  flight  of  Mohammed  from  Mecca  to  Medina.    Begin- 

ning of  the  Mohammedan  era. 
632.  (June  8)  Death  of  Mohammed  at  Medina, 
632.  Abu  Bekr,  first  Caliph  or  successor  of  Mohammed 
636.  Capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Caliph  Omar. 
640.  Capture  of  Alexandria  by  Omar. 
711.  Tharyk  crosses  the  Straits  from  Africa  to  Europe,  and  calls  the  mountain 

Jebel  Tharyk  (Gibraltar). 
732.  Battle  of  Poitiers  and  Tours;  Abd-er-Eahman  defeated  by  Charles  Martel; 


I  39.  MOHAMMEDANISM,  STATISTICS  AND  CHBON.  TABLE.  149 

786-309.  Haroun  al  Bashld,  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  Golden  era  of  Mohammed- 
anism. (Correspondence  with  Charlemagne). 

1063.  Allp  Arslan,  Seljukian  Turkish  prince. 

1096.  The  First  Crusade.    Capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon. 

1187.  Saladin,  the  Sultan  of  ICgypt  and  scourge  of  the  Crusaders,  conquers  at 
Tiberias  and  takes  Jerusalem,  (1187) ;  is  defeated  by  Eichard  Cceur 
de  Lion  at  Askelon,  and  dies  1193.  Decline  of  the  Crusades. 

1288-1326.  Eeign  of  Othman,  founder  of  the  Ottoman  (Turkish)  dynasty. 

1453.  Capture  of  Constantinople  by  Mohammed  II.,  "the  Conqueror,"  and 
founder  of  the  greatness  of  Turkey.  (Exodus  of  Greek  scholars  to 
Southern  Europe;  the  Greek  Testament  brought  to  the  West;  the 
revival  of  letters.) 

1492.  July  2.  Boabdil  (or  Abou  Abdallah)  defeated  by  Ferdinand  at  Granada  ; 
end  of  Moslem  rule  in  Spain.  (Discovery  of  America  by  Columbus). 

1517.  Ottoman  Sultan  Selim  I.  conquers  Egypt,  wrests  the  caliphate  from  the 
Arab  line  of  the  Koreish  through  Motawekkel  Billah,  and  transfers  it 
to  the  Ottoman  Sultans ;  Ottoman  caliphate  never  acknowledged  by 
Persian  or  Moorish  Moslems.  (The  Eeformation.) 

1521-1566.  Solyman  II ,  "the  Magnificent,"  marks  the  zenith  of  the  military 
power  of  the  Turks;  takes  Belgrade (1521),  defeats  the  Hungarians 
(1526),  but  is  repulsed  from  Vienna  (1529  and  1532). 

1571.  Defeat  of  Selim  II.  at  the  naval  battle  of  Lepanto  by  the  Christian  powers 
under  Don  John  of  Austria.  Beginning  of  the  decline  of  the  Turkish 
power. 

1683.  Final  repulse  of  the  Turks  at  the  gates  of  Vienna  by  John  Sobieski, 
king  of  Poland,  Sept.  12 ;  Eastern  Europe  saved  from  Moslem  rule. 

1792.  Peace  at  Jassy  in  Moldavia,  which  made  the  Dniester  the  frontier  between 
Eussia  and  Turkey. 

1827.  Annihilation  of  the  Turko-Egyptian  fleet  by  the  combined  squadrons  of 
England,  France,  and  Eussia,  in  the  battle  of  Navarino,  October  20. 
Treaty  of  Adrianople,  1829.  Independence  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece, 
1832. 

1856.  End  of  Crimean  War ;  Turkey  saved  by  England  and  France  aiding  the 
Sultan  against  the  aggression  of  Bussia;  Treaty  of  Paris;  European 
agreement  not  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  Turkey. 

1878.  Defeatof  the  Turksby  Eussia;  but  checked  by  the  interference  of  England 
under  the  lead  of  Lord  Beaconsfield.  Congress  of  the  European  pow- 
ers, and  Treaty  of  Berlin ;  independence  of  Bulgaria  secured ;  Anglo- 
Turkish  Treaty;  England  occupies  Cyprus — agrees  to  defend  the  fron- 
tier of  Asiatic  Turkey  against  Eussia,  on  condition  that  the  Sultan 
execute  fundamental  reforms  in  Asiatic  Turkey. 

1880.  Supplementary  Conference  at  Berlin.  Eectification  and  enlargement  of 
the  boundary  of  Montenegro  and  Greece. 


150  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

§  40.  Position  of  Mohammedanism  in  Church  History. 

While  new  races  and  countries  in  Northern  and  Western 
Europe,  unknown  to  the  apostles,  were  added  to  the  Christian 
Church,  we  behold  in  Asia  and  Africa  the  opposite  spectacle  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  a  rival  religion  which  is  now  acknow- 
ledged by  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe. 
It  is  called  "Mohammedanism"  from  its  founder,  or  "Isl&m," 
from  its  chief  virtue,  which  is  absolute  surrender  to  the  one  true 
God.  Like  Christianity,  it  had  its  birth  in  the  Shemitic  race,  the 
parent  of  the  three  monotheistic  religions,  but  in  an  obscure  and 
even  desert  district,  and  had  a  more  rapid,  though  less  enduring 
success. 

But  what  a  difference  in  the  means  employed  and  the  results 
reached !  Christianity  made  its  conquest  by  peaceful  missiona- 
ries and  the  power  of  persuasion,  and  carried  with  it  the  blessings 
of  home,  freedom  and  civilization.  Mohammedanism  conquered 
the  fairest  portions  of  the  earth  by  the  sword  and  cursed  them 
by  polygamy,  slavery,  despotism  and  desolation.  The  moving 
power  of  Christian  missions  was  love  to  God  and  man;  the 
moving  power  of  Isl£m  was  fanaticism  and  brute  force.  Chris- 
tianity has  found  a  home  among  all  nations  and  climes  j  Moham- 
medanism, although  it  made  a  most  vigorous  effort  to  conquer 
the  world,  is  after  all  a  religion  of  the  desert,  of  the  tent  and  the 
caravan,  and  confined  to  nomad  and  savage  or  half-civilized 
nations,  chiefly  Arabs,  Persians,  and  Turks.  It  never  made  an 
impression  on  Europe  except  by  brute  force ;  it  is  only  encamped, 
not  really  domesticated,  in  Constantinople,  and  when  it  must 
withdraw  from  Europe  it  will  leave  no  trace  behind. 

IsUm  in  its  conquering  march  took  forcible  possession  of  the 
lands  of  the  Bible,  and  the  Greek  church,  seized  the  throne  of 
Constantine,  overran  Spain,  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  and  for  a  long 
time  threatened  even  the  church  of  Rome  and  the  German  empire, 
until  it  was  finally  repulsed  beneath  the  walls  of  Vienna.  The 
Crusades  which  figure  so  prominently  in  the  history  of  mediaeval 


2  40.  POSITION  OP  MOHAMMEDANISM,  ETC.  151 

Christianity,  originated  in  the  desire  to  wrest  the  holy  land  from 
the  followers  of  "  the  false  prophet,"  and  brought  the  East  in 
contact  with  the  "West.  The  monarchy  and  the  church  of  Spain, 
with  their  architecture,  chivalry,  bigotry,  and  inquisition,  emerged 
from  a  fierce  conflict  with  the  Moors.  Even  the  Reformation  in 
the  sixteenth  century  was  complicated  with  the  Turkish  question, 
which  occupied  the  attention  of  the  diet  of  Augsburg  as  much  as 
the  Confession  of  the  Evangelical  princes  and  divines.  Luther, 
in  one  of  his  most  popular  hymns,  prays  for  deliverance  from 
"the  murdering  Pope  and  Turk,"  as  the  two  chief  enemies  of 
the  gospel1;  and  the  Anglican  Prayer  Book,  in  the  collect  for 
Good  Friday,  invokes  God  "  to  have  mercy  upon  all  Turks/' 
as  well  as  upon  "  Jews,  Infidels,  and  Heretics." 2 

The  danger  for  Western  Christendom  from  that  quarter  has 
long  since  passed  away;  the  "unspeakable"  Turk  has  ceased  to 
be  unconquerable,  but  the  Asiatic  and  a  part  of  the  East  Euro- 
pean portion  of  the  Greek  church  are  still  subject  to  the  despotic 
rule  of  the  Sultan,  whose  throne  in  Constantinople  has  been  for 
more  than  four  hundred  years  a  standing  insult  to  Christendom. 

Mohammedanism  then  figures  as  a  hostile  force,  as  a  real  Ish- 
maelite  in  church  history;  it  is  the  only  formidable  rival  which 
Christianity  ever  had,  the  only  religion  which  for  a  while  at  least 
aspired  to  universal  empire. 

And  yet  it  is  not  hostile  only.  It  has  not  been  without  bene- 
ficial effect  upon  Western  civilization.  It  aided  in  the  develop- 
ment of  chivalry;  it  influenced  Christian  architecture;  it  stimu- 
lated the  study  of  mathematics,  chemistry,  medicine  (as  is  indicated 
by  the  technical  terms:  algebra,  chemistry,  alchemy);  and  the 
Arabic  translations  and  commentaries  on  Aristotle  by  the  Spanish 

1  "ErhdUuns,  JHerr,  M  deinem,  Wort, 
Und  stew*  des  Papsts  wd  Turken  Mvrd." 

*  The  words  "all  Jews,  Turks,  Infidels,  and  Heretics,"  were  inserted  by  the 
framers  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  the  first  edition  (1547) ;  the  rest  of  the  collect  is 
translated  from  the  old  Latin  service.  In  the  middle  ages  the  word  " infidel" 
denoted  a  Mohammedan.  The  Mohammedans  in  turn  call  Christians,  Jews, 
and  all  other  religionists,  "infidels"  and  "dogs." 


152  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Moors  laid  the  philosophical  foundation  of  scholasticism.  Even 
the  conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  brought  an  in- 
estimable blessing  to  the  West  by  driving  Greek  scholars  with 
the  Greek  Testament  to  Italy  to  inaugurate  there  the  revival 
of  letters  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

Viewed  in  its  relation  to  the  Eastern  Church  which  it  robbed 
of  the  fairest  dominions,  Mohammedanism  was  a  well-deserved 
divine  punishment  for  the  unfruitful  speculations,  bitter  conten- 
tions, empty  ceremonialism  and  virtual  idolatry  which  degraded 
and  disgraced  the  Christianity  of  the  East  after  the  fifth  century. 
The  easence  o*f  true  religion,  love  to  God  and  to  man,  was  eaten 
out  by  rancor  and  strife,  and  there  was  left  no  power  of  ultimate 
resistance  to  the  foreign  conqueror.  The  hatred  between  the 
orthodox  Eastern  church  and  the  Eastern  schismatics  driven 
from  her  communion,  and  the  jealousy  between  the  Greek 
and  Latin  churches  prevented  them  from  aiding  each  other  in 
efforts  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the  common  foe.  The  Greeks 
detested  the  Latin  Filiogue  as  a  heresy  more  deadly  than  Islam; 
while  the  Latins  cared  more  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  than  the 
triumph  of  Christianity,  and  set  up  during  the  Crusades  a  rival 
hierarchy  in  the  East.  Even  now  Greek  and  Latin  monks  in 
Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem  are  apt  to  fight  at  Christmas  and  Eas- 
ter over  the  cradle  and  the  grave  of  their  common  Lord  and 
Redeemer,  unless  Turkish  soldiers  keep  them  in  order  I1 

But  viewed  in  relation  to  the  heathenism  from  which  it  arose 
or  which  it  converted,  Mahommedanism  is  a  vast  progress,  and 

1  Archbishop  Trench,  /.  c.  p.  54 :  "  We  can  regard  Mohammedanism  in  no 
other  light  than  as  a  scourge  of  God  upon  a  guilty  church.  He  will  not  give 
his  glory  to  another.  He  will  not  suffer  the  Creator  and  the  creature  to  be 
confounded;  and  if  those  who  should  have  been  witnesses  for  the  truth,  who 
had  been  appointed  thereunto,  forsake,  forget,  or  deny  it,  He  will  raise  up  wit- 
nesses from  quarters  the  most  unlocked  for,  and  will  strengthen  their  hands  aud 
give  victory  to  their  arms  even  against  those  who  bear  his  name,  but  have  for- 
gotten his  truth."  Similarly  Dr.  Jessup,  I  c.  p*  14:  "The  Mohammedan  reli- 
gion arose,  in  the  providence  of  God,  as  a  scourge  to  the  idolatrous  Christianity, 
and  the  pagan  systems  of  Asia  and  Africa— a  protest  against  polytheism,  and  a 
preparation  for  the  future  conversion  to  a  pure  Christianity  of  the  multitude 


5  40.  POSITION  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  ETC.  153 

may  ultimately  be  a  stepping-stone  to  Christianity,  like  the  law 
of  Moses  which  served  as  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to  the  gos- 
pel. It  has  destroyed  the  power  of  idolatry  in  Arabia  and  a  large 
part  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  raised  Tartars  and  Negroes  from  the 
rudest  forms  of  superstition  to  the  belief  and  worship  of  the  one 
true  God,  and  to  a  certain  degree  of  civilization. 

It  should  be  mentioned,  however,  that,  according  to  the  testi- 
mony of  missionaries  and  African  travelers,  Mohammedanism 
has  inflamed  the  simple  minded  African  tribes  with  the  impure 
fire  of  fanaticism  and  given  them  greater  power  of  resistance  to 
Christianity.  Sir  William  Muir,  a  very  competent  judge,  thinks 
that  Mohammedanism  by  the  poisoning  influence  of  polygamy 
and  slavery,  and  by  crushing  all  freedom  of  judgment  in  religion 
has  interposed  the  most  effectual  barrier  against  the  reception  of 
Christianity.  "  No  system/7  he  says,  "  could  have  been  devised 
with  more  consummate  skill  for  shutting  out  the  nations  over 
which  it  has  sway,  from  the  light  of  truth.  Idolatrous  Arabs 
might  have  been  aroused  to  spiritual  life  and  to  the  adoption  of 
the  faith  of  Jesus;  Mahometan  Arabia  is,  to  the  human  eye, 
sealed  against  the  benign  influences  of  the  gospel.  . . .  The  sword 
of  Mahomet  and  the  Goran  are  the  most  fatal  enemies  of  civiliza- 
tion, liberty,  and  truth."  * 

This  is  no  doubt  true  of  the  past.  But  we  have  not  yet  seen 
the  end  of  this  historical  problem.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Isl&m 
may  yet  prove  to  be  a  necessary  condition  for  the  revival  of  a 
pure  Scriptural  religion  in  the  East.  Protestant  missionaries 
from  England  and  America  enjoy  greater  liberty  under  the  Mo- 
hammedan rule  than  they  would  under  a  Greek  or  [Russian 

who  have  fallen  under  its  extraordinary  power."  Carlyle  calls  the  creed  of  Mo- 
hammed "a  kind  of  Christianity  better  than  that  of  those  miserable  Syrian 
Sects  with  the  head  fall  of  worthless  noise,  the  heart  empty  and  dead.  The 
truth  of  it  is  imbedded  in  portentous  error  and  falsehood ;  but  the  truth  makes 
it  to  be  believed,  not  the  falsehood:  it  succeeded  by  its  truth.  A  bastard  kind 
of  Christianity,  but  a  living  kind;  with  a  heart-life  in  it;  not  dead,  chopping, 
barren  logic  merely.'1 
1  Life  of  Mohamet,  IV.  321, 322. 


154  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

government.  The  Mohammedan  abhorrence  of  idolatry  and 
image  worship,  Mohammedan  simplicity  and  temperance  are 
points  of  contact  with  the  evangelical  iype  of  Christianity,  which 
from  the  extreme  West  has  established  flourishing  missions  in  the 
most  important  parts  of  Turkey.  The  Greek  Church  can  do 
little  or  nothing  with  the  Mohammedans ;  if  they  are  to  be  con- 
verted it  must  be  done  by  a  Christianity  which  is  free  from  all 
appearance  of  idolatry,  more  simple  in  worship,  and  more  vigorous 
in  life  than  that  which  they  have  so  easily  conquered  and  learned 
to  despise.  It  is  an  encouraging  fact  that  Mohammedans  have 
great  respect  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  They  now  swear  by  the 
word  of  an  Englishman  as  much  as  by  the  beard  of  Mohammed. 
IslAm  is  still  a  great  religious  power  in  the  East.  It  rules 
supreme  in  Syria,  Palestine,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  North  Africa, 
and  makes  progress  among  the  savage  tribes  in  the  interior  of  the 
Dark  Continent.  It  is  by  no  means  simply,  as  Schlegel  charac- 
terized the  system,  "a  prophet  without  miracles,  a  faith  without 
mysteries,  and  a  morality  without  love."  It  has  tenacity,  aggres- 
sive vitality  and  intense  enthusiasm.  Every  traveller  in  the  Ori- 
ent must  be  struck  with  the  power  of  its  simple  monotheism  upon 
its  followers.  A  visit  to  the  Moslem  University  in  the  Mosque 
El  Azhar  at  Cairo  is  very  instructive.  It  dates  from  the  tenth 
century  (975),  and  numbers  (or  numbered  in  1877,  when  I  visited 
it)  no  less  than  ten  thousand  students  who  come  from  all  parts 
of  the  Mohammedan  world  and  present  the  appearance  of  a  huge 
Sunday  School,  seated  in  small  groups  on  the  floor,  studying  the 
Koran  as  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  wisdom,  and  then  at  the 
stated  hours  for  prayer  rising  to  perform  their  devotions  under 
the  lead  of  their  teachers.  They  live  in  primitive  simplicity, 
studying,  eating  and  sleeping  on  a  blanket  or  straw  mat  in  the 
same  mosque,  but  the  expression  of  their  faces  betrays  the  fanatic- 
al devotion  to  their  creed.  They  support  themselves,  or  are 
aided  by  the  alms  of  the  faithful.  The  teachers  (over  three  hun- 
dred) receive  no  salary  and  live  by  private  instruction  or  presents 
from  rich  scholars. 


2  41.  THE  HOME,  AND  THE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  ISLAM.  155 

Nevertheless  the  power  of  Isl&m,  like  its  symbol,  the  moon, 
is  disappearing  before  the  sun  of  Christianity  which  is  rising  once 
more  over  the  Eastern  horizon.  Nearly  one-third  of  its  follow- 
ers are  under  Christian  (mostly  English)  role.  It  is  essentially 
a  jjoZfifoco-religious  system,  and  Turkey  is  its  stronghold.  The 
Sultan  has  long  been  a  "  sick  man/'  and  owes  his  life  to  the  for- 
bearance and  jealousy  of  the  Christian  powers.  Sooner  or  later 
he  will  be  driven  out  of  Europe,  to  Brusa  or  -Mecca.  The  colos- 
sal empire  of  Russia  is  the  hereditary  enemy  of  Turkey,  and 
would  have  destroyed  her  in  the  wars  of  1854  and  1877,  if  Cath- 
olic France  and  Protestant  England  had  not  come  to  her  aid. 
In  the  meantime  the  silent  influences  of  European  civilization 
and  Christian  missions  are  undermining  the  foundations  of  Tur- 
key, and  preparing  the  way  for  a  religious,  moral  and  social 
regeneration  and  transformation  of  the  East.  <e  God's  mills  grind 
slowly,  but  surely  and  wonderfully  fine."  A  thousand  years 
before  Him  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  may  do  the  work  of  a 
thousand  years. 

§  41.  The  Home,  and  the  Antecedents  of  Islhm. 

On  the  Aborigines  of  Arabia  and  its  religious  condition  before  Islam, 
compare  the  preliminary  discourse  of  S-Ai/E,  Sect.  1  and  2;  MUIB, 
L  ch.  2d;  SpBEffGER,  1,  13-02,  and  STOBABT,  ch.  1. 


The  fatherland  of  Isl&m  is  Arabia,  a  peninsula  between  the 
Bed  Sea,  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  is  covered 
with  sandy  deserts,  barren  hills,  rSek-bound  coasts,  fertile  wadies, 
and  rich  pastures.  It  is  inhabited  by  nomadic  tribes  and  traders 
who  claim  descent  from  five  patriarchal  stocks,  Gush,  Shem, 
Ishmael,  Keturah,  and  Esau.  It  was  divided  by  the  ancients 
into  Arabia  Deserta,  Arabia  Petraea  (the  Sinai  district  with  Petra 
as  the  capital),  and  Arabia  Felix  (El-Yemen,  i.  e.  the  land  on 
the  right  hand,  or  of  the  South).  Most  of  its  rivers  are  swelled 
by  periodical  rains  and  then  lose  themselves  in  the  sandy  plains; 
few  reach  the  ocean  ;  none  of  them  is  navigable.  It  is  a  land  of 
grim  deserts  and  strips  of  green  verdure,  of  drought  and  barren- 


156  FOUKTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

ness,  violent  rains,  clear  skies,  tropical  heat,  date  palms,  aromatic 
herbs,  coffee,  balsam,  myrrh,  frankincense,  and  dhurra  (which 
takes  the  place  of  grain).  Its  chief  animals  are  the  camel,  "the 
ship  of  the  desert,"  an  excellent  breed  of  horses,  sheep,  and  goats. 
The  desert,  like  the  ocean,  is  not  without  its  grandeur.  It  cre- 
ates the  impression  of  infinitude,  it  fosters  silence  and  meditation 
on  God  and  eternity.  Man  is  there  alone  with  God.  The  Ara- 
bian desert  gave  birth  to  some  of  the  sublimest  compositions,  the 
ode  of  liberty  by  Miriam,  the  ninetieth  Psalm  by  Moses,  the 
book  of  Job,  which  Carlyle  calls  "the  grandest  poem  written  by 
the  pen  of  man." 

The  Arabs  love  a  roaming  life,  are  simple  and  temperate,  cour- 
teous, respectful,  hospitable,  imaginative,  fond  of  poetry  and 
eloquence,  careless  of  human  life,  revengeful,  sensual,  and  fanatic- 
al. Arabia,  protected  by  its  deserts,  was  never  properly  con- 
quered by  a  foreign  nation. 

The  religious  capital  of  Isl4m,  and  the  birthplace  of  its  founder 
— its  Jerusalem  and  Borne — is  MECCA  (or  Mekka),  one  of  the 
oldest  cities  of  Arabia.  It  is  situated  sixty-five  miles  East  of 
Jiddah  on  the  Eed  Sea,  two  hundred  and  forty-five  miles  South 
of  Medinaj,in  a  narrow  and  sterile  valley  and  shut  in  by  bare 
hills.  It  numbered  in  its  days  of  prosperity  over  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  now  only  about  forty-five  thousand.  It 
stands  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  Sultan.  The  streets 
are  broad,  but  unpaved,  dusty  in  summer,  muddy  id  winter. 
The  houses  are  built  of  brick  or  stone,  three  or  four  stories  high ; 
the  rooms  better  furnished  than  is  usual  in  the  East.  They  are 
a  chief  source  of  revenue  by  being  let  to  the  pilgrims.  There  is 
scarcely  a  garden  or  cultivated  field  in  and  around  Mecca,  and 
only  here  and  there  a  thorny  acacia  and  stunted  brushwood 
relieves  the  eye.  The  city  derives  all  its  fruit — watermelons, 
dates,  cucumbers,  limes,  grapes,  apricots,  figs,  almonds — from 
T4if  and  Wady  Fatima,  which  during  the  pilgrimage  season 
send  more  than  one  hundred  camels  daily  to  the  capital.  The 
inhabitants  are  indolent,  though  avaricious,  and  make  their  living 


1 41.  THE  HOME,  AOT>  THE  ANTECEDENT  OF  ISLAM.  157 

chiefly  of  the  pilgrims  who  annually  flock  thither  by  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  from  all  parts  of  the  Mohammedan  world. 
None  but  Moslems  are  allowed  to  enter  Mecca,  but  a  few  Chris- 
tian travellers — All  Bey  (the  assumed  name  of  the  Spaniard, 
Domingo  Badia  y  Leblich,  d.  1818),  Burckhardt  in  1814,  Bur- 
ton in  1852,  Maltzan  in  1862,  Keane  in  1880— have  visited  it  in 
Mussulman  disguise,  and  at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  To  them  we 
owe  our  knowledge  of  the  place.1 

The  most  holy  place  in  Mecca  is  AL-£AABA,  a  small  ob- 
long temple,  so  called  from  its  cubic  form.2  To  it  the  faces 
of  millions  of  Moslems  are  devoutly  turned  in  prayer  five  times 
a  day.  It  is  inclosed  by  the  great  mosque,  which  corresponds  in 
importance  to  the  temple  of  Solomon  in  Jerusalem  and  St.  Peter's 
cathedral  in  Rome,  and  can  hold  about  thirty-five  thousand  per- 
sons. It  is  surrounded  by  colonnades,  chambers,  domes  and 
minarets.  Near  it  is  the  bubbling  well  Zemzem,  from  which 
Hagar  and  Ishmael  are  said  to  have  quenched  their  burning  thirst. 
The  Kaaba  is  much  older  than  Mecca.  Diodorus  Siculus  men- 
tions ifc  as  the  oldest  and  most  honored  temple  in  his  time.  It 
is  supposed  to  have  been  first  built  by  angels  in  the  shape  of  a 
tent  and  to  have  been  let  down  from  heaven;  there  Adam  wor- 
shipped after  his  expulsion  from  Paradise;  Seth  substituted  a 
structure  of  clay  and  stone  for  a  tent;  after  the  destruction  by 
the  deluge  Abraham  and  Ishmael  reconstructed  it,  and  their 
footsteps  are  shown.3  It  was  entirely  rebuilt  in  1627.  It  eon- 

1  See  Ali  Bey's  Travels  in  Asia  and  Africa,  1803-1807  (1SL4,  3  vols.);  the 
works  of  Burckhardt,  and  Burton  mentioned  before;  and  Muir,  1. 1-9. 

*  The  Cube-house  or  Square  house,  Maison  carree.  It  is  also  called  Beit  TJI* 
lah,  (Beth-d),  i.  e.  House  of  God.  It  is  covered  -with  cloth.  See  a  description 
in  Burckhardt,  Travels,  Lond.,  1829,  p.  136,  Burton  II.  154>  Sprenger  II.  340, 
and  Khan  Bahador's  Essay  on  the  History  of&e  Holy  Mecca  (a  part  of  the  work 
above  quoted).  Burckhardt  gives  the  size:  18  paces  long,  14  broad,  35  to  40 
feet  high.  Burton :  22  paces  (=  55  English  feet)  long,  18  paces  (45  feet)  broad. 

8  Bahador  says,  L  «. .-  "The  most  ancient  and  authentic  of  all  the  local  tradi- 
tions of  Arabia ...  represent  the  temple  of  the  Kaaba  as  having  been  constructed 
in  the  42d  century  A.  M.,  or  19th  century  B.  C.,  by  Abraham,  who  was  assisted 
in  his  work  by  his  son  IshmaeL"  He  quotes  Gen.  xuu  7;  xiii.  18  in  proof  that 


158  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.590  TO  1049. 

tains  the  famous  BLACK  STONE/  in  the  North-Eastern  corner 
near  the  door.  This  is  probably  a  meteoric  stone,  or  of  volcanic 
origin,  and  served  originally  as  an  altar.  The  Arabs  believe 
that  it  fell  from  Paradise  with  Adam,  and  was  as  white  as 
milk,  but  turned  black  on  account  of  man's  sins.2  It  is  semi- 
circular in  shape,  measures  about  six  inches  in  height,  and 
eight  inches  in  breadth,  is  four  or  five  feet  from  the  ground, 
of  reddish  black  color,  polished  by  innumerable  kisses  (like  the 
foot  of  the  Peter-statue  in  St.  Peter's  at  Rome),  encased  in  silver, 
and  covered  with  black  silk  and  inscriptions  from  the  Koran. 
It  was  an  object  of  veneration  from  time  immemorial,  and  is 
still  devoutly  kissed  or  touched  by  the  Moslem  pilgrims  on  each 
of  their  seven  circuits  around  the  temple.3 

Mohammed  subsequently  cleared  the  Kaaba  of  all  relics  of 
idolatry,  and  made  it  the  place  of  pilgrimage  for  his  followers. 
He  invented  or  revived  the  legend  that  Abraham  by  divine 
command  sent  his  son  Ishmael  with  Hagar  to  Mecca  to  establish 
there  the  true  worship  and  the  pilgrim  festival.  He  says  in  the 
Koran:  "God  hath  appointed  the  Kaaba,  the  sacred  house,  to 
be  a  station  for  mankind/'  and,  "Remember  when  we  appointed 
the  sanctuary  as  man's  resort  and  safe  retreat,  and  said,  'Take 
ye  the  station  of  Abraham  for  a  place  of  prayer/  And  we  com- 
manded Abraham  and  Ishmael,  'Purify  my  house  for  those  who 
shall  go  in  procession  round  it,  and  those  who  shall  bow  down 
and  prostrate  themselves.'"4 

Abraham  raised  "  altars  for  God's  worship  on  every  spot  where  he  himself  had 
adored  Him."    But  the  Bible  nowhere  says  that  he  evar  was  in  Mecca. 

1  It  is  called  in  Arabic  Hhajera  el-Assou&d,  the  Heavenly  Stone.  Muir 
II.  35. 

3  Bahadoi  discredits  this  and  other  foolish  traditions,  and  thinks  that  the 
Black  Stone  was  a  piece  of  rock  from  the  neighboring  Abba  Eobais  mountain, 
and  put  in  its  present  place  by  Talmiiifll  at  the  desire  of  Abraham. 

9  See  pictures  of  the  Kaaba  and  the  Black  Stone,  in  Bahador,  and  also  in 
Muir,  EL  18,  and  description,  II.  34  sqq. 

*KodwelPs  translation,  pp.  446  and  648.  Sprenger,  II.  279,  regards  the 
Moslem  legend  of  the  Abrahamic  origin  of  the  Kaaba  worship  as  a  pure  inven 
tion  of  Mohammed,  of  which  there  is  no  previous  trace. 


\  41.  THE  HOME,  AND  THE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  ISLAM.  159 

Arabia  had  at  the  time  when  Mohammed  appeared,  all  the 
elements  for  a  wild,  warlike,  eclectic  religion  like  the  one  which 
he  established.  It  was  inhabited  by  heathen  star-worshippers, 
Jews,  and  Christians. 

The  heathen  were  ihe  ruling  race,  descended  from  Ishmaely 
the  bastard  son  of  Abraham  (Ibrahim),  the  real  sons  of  the 
desert,  full  of  animal  life  and  energy.  They  had  their  sanctuary 
in  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca,  which  attracted  annually  large  numbers 
of  pilgrims  long  before  Mohammed. 

The  Jews,  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  were  scattered 
in  Arabia,  especially  in  the  district  of  Medina,  and  exerted  con- 
siderable influence  by  their  higher  culture  and  rabbinical  tra- 
ditions. 

The  Christians  belonged  mostly  to  the  various  heretical  sects 
which  were  expelled  from  the  Roman  empire  during  the  violent 
doctrinal  controversies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  We 
find  there  traces  of  Arians,  Sabellians,  Ebionites,  Nestorians, 
Eutychians,  Monophysites,  Marianites,  and  Collyridians  or  wor- 
shippers of  Mary.  Anchorets  and  monks  settled  in  large  num- 
bers in  "Wady  Feiran  around  Mount  Serbal,  and  Justinian  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Sinai,  which  till  the  year  1859  harbored  the  oldest 
and  most  complete  uncial  manuscript  of  the  Greek  Scriptures  of 
both  Testaments  from  the  age  of  Constantine.  But  it  was  a 
very  superficial  and  corrupt  Christianity  which  had  found  a 
home  in  those  desert  regions,  where  even  the  apostle  Paul  spent 
three  years  after  his  conversion  in  silent  preparation  for  his  great 
mission. 

These  three  races  and  religions,  though  deadly  hostile  to  each 
other,  alike  revered  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  faithful,  as  their 
common  ancestor.  This  fact  might  suggest  to  a  great  mind  the 
idea  to  unite  them  by  a  national  religion  monotheistic  in  princi- 
ple and  eclectic  in  its  character.  This  seems  to  have  been  the 
original  project;  of  the  founder  of  Isl&m. 

It  is  made  certain  by  recent  research  that  there  were  at  the 


160  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

time  and  before  the  call  of  Mohammed  a  considerable  number 
of  inquirers  at  Mecca  and  Medina,  who  had  intercourse  with 
Eastern  Christians  in  Syria  and  Abyssinia,  were  dissatisfied  with 
the  idolatry  around  them,  and  inclined  to  monotheism,  which 
they  traced  to  Abraham.  They  called  themselves  Hanyfs,  i.  e. 
Converts,  Puritans.  One  of  them,  Omayah  of  Tsbif,  we  know  to 
have  been  under  Christian  influence;  others  seem  to  have  de- 
rived their  monotheistic  ideas  from  Judaism,  Some  of  the  early 
converts  of  Mohammed  as,  Zayd  (his  favorite  slave),  Omayah, 
or  Umaijah  (a  popular  poet),  and  Waraka  (a  cousin  of  Chadijah 
and  a  student"  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Jews  and  Christians) 
belonged  to  this  sect,  and  even  Mohammed  acknowledged  him- 
self at  first  a  Hanyf.1  Waraka,  it  is  said,  believed  in  him,  as 
long  as  he  was  a  HanyfJt  but  then  forsook  him,  and  died  a  Chris- 
tian or  a  Jew.2 

Mohammed  consolidated  and  energized  this  reform-movement, 
and  gave  it  a  world-wide  significance,  under  the  new  name  of 
Isl&m,  i.  e.  resignation  to  God;  whence  Moslem,  (or  Muslim), 
one  who  resigns  himself  to  God. 

§  42.  Life  and  Character  of  Mohammed. 

Mohammed,  an  unschooled,  self-taught,  semi-barbarous  son  of 
nature,  of  noble  birth,  handsome  person,  imaginative,  energetic, 
brave,  the  ideal  of  a  Bedouin  chief,  was  destined  to  become  the 
political  and  religious  reformer,  the  poet,  prophet,  priest,  and 
king  of  Arabia. 

He  was  born  about  A.D.  570  at  Mecca,  the  only  child  of  a 

1  Sprenger  1. 45:  "Die  bisher  wnbekannt  gebliebenen  Hanyfen  waren  die  Vor- 
laufer  des  Mohammad.  Er  nennt  sich  sdbst  einen  Hanyf t  und  wakrend  der  ersten 
Periods  semes  Lehramtes  hat  er  wenig  anderes  gethan,  ofe  ihre  Lehre  bestatiyt." 

a  According  to  Sprenger,  I.  91  sqq.,  he  died  a  Christian ;  but  Deutsch,  L  c.,  p. 
77,  says:  "Whatever  Waraka  was  originally,  he  certainly  lived  and  die'l  a 
Jew."  He  infers  this  from  the  feet  that  when  asked  by  Chadijah  for  his  opinion 
concerning  Mohammed's  revelations,  he  cried  out:  "Koddus!  Koddus!  (i.  e., 
Kadosh,  Holy).  Verily  this  is  the  Namus  (i.  e.,  v6[u>s,  Law)  which  came  to 
Moses.  He  will  be  the  prophet  of  his  people." 


g  42.  LIFE  AND  CHAKACTEE  OF  MOHAMMED.         161 

young  widow  named  Amina.1  His  father  Abdallah  had  died  a 
few  months  before  in  his  twenty-fifth  year  on  a  mercantile  jour- 
ney in  Medina,  and  left  to  his  orphan  five  camels,  some  sheep 
and  a  slave  girl.2  He  belonged  to  the  heathen  family  of  the 
Hashim,  which  was  not  wealthy,  but  claimed  lineal  descent  from 
Ishmael,  and  was  connected  with  the  Koreish  or  Korashites,  the 
leading  tribe  of  the  Arabs  and  the  hereditary  guardians  of  the 
sacred  Kaaba.3  Tradition  surrounds  his  advent  in  the  world 
with  a  halo  of  marvellous  legends :  he  was  born  circumcised 
and  with  his  navel  cut,  with  the  seal  of  prophecy  written  on  his 
back  in  letters  of  light;  he  prostrated  himself  at  once  on  the 
ground,  and,  raising  his  hands,  prayed  for  the  pardon  of  his 
people;  three  persons,  brilliant  as  the  sun,  one  holding  a  silver 
goblet,  the  second  an  emerald  tray,  the  tibiird  a  silken  towel,  ap- 
peared from  heaven,  washed  him  seven  times,  then  blessed  and 
saluted  him  as  the  "Prince  of  Mankind."  He  was  nursed  by  a 
healthy  Bedouin  woman  of  the  desert.  When  a  boy  of  four 
years  he  was  seized  with  something  like  a  fit  of  epilepsy,  which 

1  We  know  accurately  the  date  of  Mohammed's  death  (June  8,  632),  but  the 
year  of  his  birth  only  by  reckoning  backwards ;  and  as  his  age  is  variously 
stated  from  sixty-one  to  sixty-five,  there  is  a  corresponding  difference  in  the 
statements  of  the  year  of  his  birth.    De  Sacy  fixes  it  April  20,  571,  von  Ham- 
mer 569,  Muir  Aug.  20,  570,  Sprenger  between  May  13,  567,  and  April  13,  571, 
but  afterwards  (I.  138),  April  20,  571,  as  most  in  accordance  with  early  tra- 
dition. 

2  According  to  Ibu  IsMk  and  Wackidi.    Bahador  adopts  this  tradition,  in 
the  last  of  his  essays  which  treats  of  "  the  Birth  and  Childhood  of  Mohammed." 
But  according  to  other  accounts,  Abdallah  died  several  months  (seven  or 
eighteen)  after  Mohammed's  birth.    Muir,  1. 11;  Sprenger,  1. 138. 

*  On  the  pedigree  of  Mohammed,  see  an  essay  in  the  work  of  Syed  Ahmed 
Khan  Bahador,  and  Muir  I.  242-271.  The  Koreish  were  not  exactly  priests, 
but  watched  the  temple,  kept  the  keys,  led  the  processions,  and  provided  for 
the  pilgrims.  Hashim,  Mohammed's  great-grandfiLther  (b.  A.  D.  442),  thus 
addressed  the  Koreish:  "Ye  are  the  neighbors  of  God  and  the  keepers  of  his 
house.  The  pilgrims  who  come  honoring  the  sanctity  of  his  temple,  are  his 
guests;  and  it  is  meet  that  ye  should  entertain  them  above  all  other  guests. 
Ye  are  especially  chosen  of  God  and  exalted  unto  this  high  dignity;  wherefore 
honor  his  guests  and  refresh  them."  He  himself  set  an  example  of  munificent 
hospitality,  and  each  of  the  Koreish  contributed  according  to  his  ability.  Muir 
LCCXLVIL 


162  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

W&ckidi  and  other  historians  transformed  into  a  miraculous 
occurrence.  He  was  often  subject  to  severe  headaches  and  fever- 
ish convulsions,  in  which  he  fell  on  the  ground  like  a  drunken 
man,  and  snored  like  a  camel.1  In  his  sixth  year  he  lost  his 
mother  on  the  return  from  Medina,  whither  she  had  taken  him 
on  camel's  back  to  visit  the  maternal  relations  of  his  father,  and 
was  carried  back  to  Mecca  by  his  nurse,  a  faithful  slave  girl. 
He  was  taken  care  of  by  his  aged  grandfather,  Abd  al  Motkalib, 
and  after  his  death  in  578  by  his  uncle  Abu  T&lib,  who  had  two 
wives  and  ten  children,  and,  though  poor  and  no  believer  in  his 
nephew's  mission,  generously  protected  him  to  the  end. 

He  accompanied  his  uncle  on  a  commercial  journey  to  Syria, 
passing  through  the  desert,  ruined  cities  of  old,  and  Jewish  and 
Christian  settlements,  which  must  have  made  a  deep  impression 
on  his  youthftd  imagination. 

Mohammed  made  a  scanty  living  as  an  attendant  on  caravans 
and  by  watching  sheep  and  goats.  The  latter  is  rather  a  disre- 
putable occupation  among  the  Arabs,  and  left  to  unmarried 
women  and  slaves;  but  he  afterwards  gloried  in  it  by  appealing 
to  the  example  of  Moses  and  David,  and  said  that  God  never 
calls  a  prophet  who  has  not  been  a  shepherd  before.  According 
to  tradition — for,  owing  to  the  strict  prohibition  of  images,  we 
have  no  likeness  of  the  prophet — he  was  of  medium  size,  rather 
slender,  but  broad-shouldered  and  of  strong  muscles,  had  black 
eyes  and  hair,  an  oval-shaped  face,  white  teeth,  a  long  nose,  a 
patriarchal  beard,  and  a  commanding  look.  His  step  was  quick 
and  firm.  He  wore  white  cotton  stuff,  but  on  festive  occa- 
sions fine  linen  striped  or  dyed  in  red.  He  did  everything 
for  himself;  to  the  last  he  mended  his  own  clothes,  and  cobbled 
his  sandals,  and  aided  his  wives  in  sewing  and  cooking.  He 
laughed  and  smiled  often.  He  had  a  most  fertile  imagination 
and  a  genius  for  poetry  and  religion,  but  no  learning.  He  was 
an  "illiterate  prophet,"  in  this  respect  resembling  some  of  the 

1  Sprenger  lias  a  long  chapter  on  this  disease  of  Mohammed,  which  he  calls 
with  Schonlein,  hysteria  mwcdaris,  L  207-268. 


§  42.  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MOHAMMED.          163 

prophets  of  Israel  and  the  fishermen  of  Galilee.  It  is  a  dis- 
puted question  among  Moslem  and  Christian  scholars  whether 
he  could  even  read  and  write.1  Probably  he  could  not.  He 
dictated  the  Koran  from  inspiration  to  his  disciples  and  clerks. 
What  knowledge  he  possessed,  he  picked  up  on  the  way  from 
intercourse  with  men,  from  hearing  books  read,  and  especially 
from  his  travels. 

In  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  married  a  rich  widow,  Chadijah 
(or  Chadidsha),  who  was  fifteen  years  older  than  himself,  and 
who  had  previously  hired  him  to  carry  on  the  mercantile  busi- 
ness of  her  former  husband.  Her  father  was  opposed  to  the 
match;  but  she  made  and  kept  him  drunk  until  the  ceremony 
was  completed.  He  took  charge  of  her  caravans  with  great  suc- 
cess, and  made  several  journeys.  The  marriage  was  happy  and 
fruitful  of  six  children,  two  sons  and  four  daughters;  but  all 
died  except  little  FStima,  who  became  the  mother  of  innumera- 
ble legitimate  and  illegitimate  descendants  of  the  prophet.  He 
also  adopted  All,  whose  close  connection  with  him  became  so 
important  in  the  history  of  Isl£m.  He  was  faithful  to  Chadi- 
jah, and  held  her  in  grateful  remembrance  after  her  death.2  He 
used  to  say,  "  Chadijah  believed  in  me  when  nobody  else  did." 
He  married  afterwards  a  number  of  wives,  who  caused  hi™ 
much  trouble  and  scandal.  His  favorite  wife,  Ayesha,  was  more 
jealous  of  the  dead  Chadijah  than  any  of  her  twelve  or  more 

1  Sprenger  discusses  the  question,  and  answers  it  in  the  affirmative,  YoL  II. 
398  sqq.  The  Koran  (29)  says:  "Formerly  [before  I  sent  down  the  book^  i.  e. 
the  Koran]  thou  didst  not  read  any  hook  nor  write  one  with  thy  right  hand." 
From  this,  some  Moslems  infer  that  after  the  reception  of  the  Koran,  he  was 
supernaturally  taught  to  read  and  write ;  hut  others  hold  that  he  was  ignorant 
of  both.  Sjed  Ahmed  Khan  Bahador  says :  "Not  the  least  doubt  now  exists 
that  the  Prophet  was  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  art  of  writing,  being  also, 
as  a  matter  of  course  (?),  unable  to  read  the  hand-writing  of  others;  for  which  rea- 
son, and  for  this  only,  he  was  called  Ummee"  (illiterate). 

*  Sprenger  attributes  his  faithfulness  to  Ghadyga  (as  he  spells  the  name)  not 
to  his  merit,  but  to  his  dependence.  She  kept  her  fortune  under  her  own  conr 
trol}  *"J  gave  him  only  as  much  as  he  needed. 


164  FOUETfl  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

living  rivals,  for  lie  constantly  held  up  the  toothless  old  woman 
as  the  model  of  a  wife. 

On  his  commercial  journeys  to  Syria,  he  became  acquainted 
with  Jews  and  Christians,  and  acquired  an  imperfect  knowledge 
of  their  traditions.  He  spent  much  of  his  time  in  retirement, 
prayer,  fasting,  and  meditation.  He  had  violent  convulsions 
and  epileptic  fits,  which  his  enemies,  and  at  first  he  himself, 
traced  to  demoniacal  possessions,  but  afterwards  to  the  over- 
powering presence  of  God.  His  soul  was  fired  with  the  idea  of 
the  divine  unity,  which  became  his  ruling  passion;  and  then  he 
awoke  to  the  bold  thought  that  he  was  a  messenger  of  God, 
called  to  warn  his  countrymen  to  escape  the  judgment  and  the 
damnation  of  hell  by  forsaking  idolatry  and  worshipping  the 
only  true  God.  His  monotheistic  enthusiasm  was  disturbed, 
though  not  weakened,  by  his  ignorance  and  his  imperfect  sense 
of  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong. 

In  his  fortieth  year  (A.D.  610),  he  received  the  call  of  Ga- 
briel, the  archangel  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  announced 
the  birth  of  the  Saviour  to  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  first  revela- 
tion was  made  to  him  in  a  trance  in  the  wild  solitude  of  Mount 
Hir&,  an  hour's  walk  from  Mecca.  He  was  directed  "  to  cry  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  He  trembled,  as  if  something  dreadful 
had  happened  to  him,  and  hastened  home  to  his  wife,  who  told 
him  to  rejoice,  for  he  would  be  the  prophet  of  his  people.  He 
waited  for  other  visions;  but  none  came.  He  went  up  to  Mount 
Hir&  again — this  time  to  commit  suicide.  But  as  often  as  he 
approached  the  precipice,  he  beheld  Gabriel  at  the  end  of  the 
horizon  saying  to  him :  "  I  am  Gabriel,  and  thou  art  Moham- 
med, the  prophet  of  God.  Fear  not!"  He  then  commenced 
his  career  of  a  prophet  and  founder  of  a  new  religion,  which 
combined  various  elements  of  the  three  religions  represented 
in  Arabia,  but  was  animated  and  controlled  by  the  faith  in 
Allah,  as  an  almighty,  ever-present  and  working  will.  From 
this  time  on,  his  life  was  enacted  before  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
and  is  embodied  in  his  deeds  and  in  the  Koran. 


?  42.  LIFE  AND  CHAEACTEB  OF  MOHAMMED.         165 

The  revelations  continued  from  time  to  time  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  When  asked  how  they  -were  delivered  to  him, 
he  replied  (as  reported  by  Ayesha):  "Sometimes  like  the  sound 
of  a  bell — a  kind  of  communication  which  was  very  severe  for 
me ;  and  when  the  sounds  ceased,  I  found  myself  aware  of  the 
instructions.  And  sometimes  the  angel  would  come  in  the  form 
of  a  man,  and  converse  with  me,  and  all  his  words  I  remem- 
bered." 

After  his  call,  Mohammed  labored  first  for  three  years  among 
his  family  and  friends,  under  great  discouragements,  making 
about  forty  converts,  of  whom  his  wife  Chadijah  was  the  first, 
his  father-in-law,  Abu  Bakr,  and  the  young,  energetic  Omar 
the  most  important.  His  daughter  Fatima,  his  adopted  son  All, 
and  his  slave  Zayd  likewise  believed  in  his  divine  mission. 
Then  he  publicly  announced  his  determination  to  assume  by 
command  of  God  the  office  of  prophet  and  lawgiver,  preached 
to  the  pilgrims  flocking  to  Mecca,  attacked  Meccan  idolatry, 
reasoned  with  his  opponents,  answered  their  demand  for  mira- 
cles by  producing  the  Koran  "  leaf  by  leaf,"  as  occasion  de- 
manded, and  provoked  persecution  and  civil  commotion.  He 
was  forced  in  the  year  622  to  flee  for  his  life  with  his  followers 
from  Mecca  to  Medina  (El-Medina  an-Nabl,  the  City  of  the  Pro- 
phet), a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  North,  or  ten 
days'  journey  over  the  sands  and  rocks  of  the  desert. 

This  flight  or  emigration,  called  Hegira  or  Hidshra,  marks 
the  beginning  of  his  wonderful  success,  and  of  the  Mohammedan 
era  (July  15,  622).  He  was  recognized  in  Medina  as  prophet 
and  lawgiver.  At  first  he  proclaimed  toleration:  "Let  there 
be  no  compulsion  in  religion;"  but  afterwards  he  revealed*  the 
opposite  principle  that  all  unbelievers  must  be  summoned  to 
Islam,  tribute,  or  the  sword.  With  an  increasing  army  of  his 
enthusiastic  followers,  he  took  the  field  against  his  enemies, 
gained  in  624  his  first  victory  over  the  Koreish  with  an  army 
of  305  (mostly  citizens  of  Medina)  against  a  force  twice  as 
large,  conquered  several  Jewish  and  Christian  tribes,  ordered 


166  FOURTH  PEEIOD.   A. D.  590-1049. 

and  watched  in  person  the  massacre  of  six  hundred  Jews  in  one 
day/  while  their  wives  and  children  were  sold  into  slavery 
(627),  triumphantly  entered  Mecca  (630),  demolished  the  three 
hundred  and  sixty  idols  of  the  Kaaba,  and  became  master  of 
Arabia.  The  Koreish  were  overawed  by  his  success,  and  now 
shouted :  "  There  is  but  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet." 
The  various  tribes  were  melted  into  a  nation,  and  their  old 
hereditary  feuds  changed  into  a  common  fanatical  hatred  of  the 
infidels,  as  the  followers  of  all  other  religions  were  called.  The 
last  chapter  of  the  Koran  commands  the  remorseless  extermina- 
tion of  all  idolaters  iii  Arabia,  unless  they  submit  within  four 
months. 

In  the  tenth  year  of  the  Hegira,  the  prophet  made  his  last 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  Moslems, 
instructed  them  in  all  important  ordinances,  and  exhorted  them 
to  protect  the  weak,  the  poor,  and  the  women,  and  to  abstain 
from  usury.    He  planned  a  large  campaign  against  the  Greeks. 
But  soon  after  his  return  to  Medina,  he  died  of  a  violent  fever 
in  the  house  and  the  arms  of  Ayesha,  June  8,  632,  in  the  sixty- 
third  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  on  the  spot  where  he  died, 
which  is  now  enclosed  by  a  mosque.    He  suffered  great  pain, 
cried  and  wailed,  turned  on  his  couch  in  despair,  and  said  to  his 
wives  when  they  expressed  their  surprise  at  his  conduct:  "Do 
ye  not  know  that  prophets  have  to  suffer  more  than  all  others? 
One  was  eaten  up  by  vermin;  another  died  so  poor  that  he 
had  nothing  but  rags  to  cover  his  shame;  but  their  reward 
will  be  all  the  greater  in  the  life  beyond."    Among  his  last 
utterances  were:  "The  Lord  destroy  the  Jews  and  Christians! 
Let  *his  anger  be  kindled  against  those  that  turn  the  tombs 
of  their  prophets  into  places  of  worship!    O  Lord,  let  not 
my  tomb  be  an  object  of  worship !    Let  there  not  remain  any 
faith  but  that  of  Isl&m  throughout  the  whole  of  Arabia.  .  .  . 
Gabriel,  come  close  to  me!    Lord,  grant  me  pardon  and  join 

1  So  Sprenger,  m.  221.    Others  give  seven  Hundred  and  ninety  as  the  num- 
ber of  Jews  who  were  beheaded  in  a  ditdh. 


2  42.  LIFE  AND  CHABACTER  OP  MOHAMMED.         167 

me  to  thy  companionship  on  high!  Eternity  in  paradise! 
Pardon !  Yes,  the  blessed  companionship  on  high !" 1 

Omar  would  not  believe  that  Mohammed  was  dead,  and  pro- 
claimed in  the  mosque  of  Medina:  "The  prophet  has  only 
swooned  away;  he  shall  not  die  until  he  have  rooted  out  every 
hypocrite  and  unbeliever/'  But  Abu  Bakr  silenced  him  and 
said:  "Whosoever  worships  Mohammed,  let  him  know  that 
Mohammed  is  dead;  but  whosoever  worships  God,  let  him 
know  that  the  Lord  liveth,  and  will  never  die."  Abu  Bakr, 
whom  he  had  loved  most,  was  chosen  Calif,  or  Successor  of 
Mohammed. 

Later  tradition,  and  even  the  earliest  biography,  ascribe  to  the 
prophet  of  Mecca  strange  miracles,  and  surround  his  name  with 
a  mythical  halo  of  glory.  He  was  saluted  by  walking  trees 
and  stones;  he  often  made  by  a  simple  touch  the  udders  of  dry 
goats  distend  with  milk;  he  caused  floods  of  water  to  well  up 
from  the  parched  ground,  or  gush  forth  from  empty  vessels,  or 
issue  from  betwixt  the  fingers;  he  raised  the  dead;  he  made  a 
night  journey  on  his  steed  Borak  through  the  air  from  Mecca  to 
Jerusalem,  from  Jerusalem  to  paradise  and  the  mansions  of  the 
prophets  and  angels,  and  back  again  to  Mecca.2  But  he  himself, 
in  several  passages  of  the  Koran,  expressly  disclaims  the  power 
of  miracles;  he  appeals  to  the  internal  proofs  of  his  doctrine, 
and  shields  himself  behind  the  providence  of  God,  who  refuses 
those  signs  which  might  diminish  the  merit  of  faith  and  aggra- 
vate the  guilt  of  unbelief.3 

1  See  Sprenger,  HI.  552  sqq.,  Muir,  IV.  270  sqq. 

2  This  absurd  story,  circumstantially  described  by  Abulfeda,  is  probably  based 
on  a  dream  which  Mohammed  himself  relates  in  the  Koran,  Sura  17,  entitled 
The  Night  Journey:  "Glory  be  to  Him  who  carried  his  servant  by  night  from 
the  sacred  temple  of  Mecca  to  the  temple  that  is  remote"  [i  e.  in  Jerusalem], 
In  the  Dome  of  the  Bock  on  Mount  Moriah,  the  hand-prints  of  the  angel  Ga- 
briel are  shown  in  the  mysterious  rock  which  attempted  to  follow  Mohammed 
to  its  native  quarry  in  Paradise,  but  was  kept  back  by  the  angel! 

8  See  an  interesting  essay  on  the  "Miracles  of  Mohammed"  in  TholucVs 
Jfiscdtatnaw  Essays  (1839),  VoL  L,  pp.  1-27.  Also  Muir,  I,  pp.  65  sqq.; 
Sprenger,  II.  413  sqq. 


168  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Character  of  Mohammed. 

The  Koran,  if  chronologically  arranged,  must  be  regarded  as 
the  best  commentary  on  his  character.  While  his  followers  re- 
gard him  to  this  day  as  the  greatest  prophet  of  God,  he  was  long 
abhorred  in  Christendom  as  a  wicked  impostor,  as  the  antichrist, 
or  the  false  prophet,  predicted  in  the  Bible,  and  inspired  by  the 
father  of  lies. 

The  calmer  judgment  of  recent  historians  inclines  to  the  be- 
lief that  he  combined  the  good  and  bad  qualities  of  an  Oriental 
chief,  and  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  sincere 
reformer  and  enthusiast,  but  after  the  establishment  of  his  king- 
dom a  slave  of  ambition  for  conquest.  He  was  a  better  man  in 
the  period  of  his  adversity  and  persecution  at  Mecca,  than  during 
his  prospei'ity  and  triumph  at  Medina.  History  records  many 
examples  of  characters  rising  from  poverty  and  obscurity  to 
greatness,  and  then  decaying  under  the  sunshine  of  wealth  and 
power.  He  degenerated,  like  Solomon,  but  did  not  repent,  like 
the  preacher  of  u  vanity  of  vanities."  He  had  a  melancholic 
and  nervous  temperament,  liable  to  fantastic  hallucinations  and 
alternations  of  high  excitement  and  deep  depression,  bordering 
at  times  on  despair  and  suicide.  The  story  of  his  early  and  fre- 
quent epileptic  fits  throws  some  light  on  his  revelations,  during 
which  he  sometimes  growled  like  a  camel,  foamed  at  his  mouth, 
and  streamed  with  perspiration.  He  believed  in  evil  spirits, 
omens,  charms,  and  dreams.  His  mind  was  neither  clear  nor 
sharp,  but  strong  and  fervent,  and  under  the  influence  of  an  exu- 
berant imagination.  He  was  a  poet  of  high  order,  and  the  Koran 
is  the  first  classic  in  Arabic  literature.  He  believed  himself 
to  be  a  prophet,  irresistibly  impelled  by  supernatural  influence 
to  teach  and  warn  his  fellow-men.  He  started  with  the  over- 
powering conviction  of  the  unity  of  God  and  a  horror  of  idola- 
try, and  wished  to  rescue  his  countrymen  from  this  sin  of  sins 
and  from  the  terrors  of  the  judgment  to  come  j  but  gradually  he 
rose  above  the  office  of  a  national  reformer  to  that  of  the  founder 


2  42.  LIFE  AND  CHAEACTEB  OP  MOHAMMED.          169 

of  a  universal  religion,  which  was  to  absorb  the  other  religions, 
and  to  be  propagated  by  violence.  It  is  difficult  to  draw  the 
line  in  such  a  character  between  honest  zeal  and  selfish  ambition, 
the  fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  power  and  gloiy. 

He  despised  a  throne  and  a  diadem,  lived  with  his  wives  in 
a  row  of  low  and  homely  cottages  of  unbaked  bricks,  and  aided 
them  in  their  household  duties;  he  was  strictly  temperate  in  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  his  chief  diet  being  dates  and  water;  he  was 
not  ashamed  to  milk  his  goats,  to  mend  his  clothes  and  to  cobble 
his  shoes;  his  personal  property  at  his  death  amounted  to  some 
confiscated  lands,  fourteen  or  fifteen  slaves,  a  few  camels  and 
mules,  a  hundred  sheep,  and  a  rooster.  This  simplicity  of  a 
Bedouin  Sheikh  of  the  desert  contrasts  most  favorably  with  the 
luxurious  style  and  gorgeous  display  of  Mohammed's  successors, 
the  Califs  and  Sultans,  who  have  dozens  of  palaces  and  harems 
filled  with  eunuchs  and  women  that  know  nothing  beyond  the 
vanities  of  dress  and  etiquette  and  a  little  music.  He  was 
easy  of  access  to  visitors  who  approached  him  with  faith  and 
reverence;  patient,  generous,  and  (according  to  Ayesha)  as 
modest  and  bashful  "as  a  veiled  virgin."  But  towards  his 
enemies  he  was  cruel  and  revengeful.  He  did  not  shrink  from 
perfidy.  He  believed  in  the  use  of  the  sword  as  the  best  mis- 
sionary, and  was  utterly  unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  of  success. 
He  had  great  moral,  but  little  physical  courage;  he  braved  for 
thirteen  years  the  taunts  and  threats  of  the  people,  but  never 
exposed  himself  to  danger  in  battle,  although  he  always  accom- 
panied his  forces. 

Mohammed  was  a  slave  of  sensual  passion.  Ayesha,  who  knew 
him  best  in  his  private  character  and  habits,  used  to  say:  " The 
prophet  loved  three  things,  women,  perfumes  and  food;  he  had 
his  heart's  desire  of  the  two  first,  but  not  of  the  last."  The  mo- 
tives of  his  excess  in  polygamy  were  his  sensuality  which  grew 
with  his  years,  and  his  desire  for  male  offspring.  His  followers 
excused  or  justified  him  by  the  examples  of  Abraham,  David 
and  Solomon,  and  by  the  difficulties  of  his  prophetic  office,  which 


170  FOURTH  PEEIOR    A.D.  590-1049. 

were  so  great  that  God  gave  him  a  compensation  in  sexual  en- 
joyment, and  endowed  him  with  greater  capacity  than  thirty 
ordinary  men.     For  twenty-four  years  he  had  but  one  wife,  his 
beloved  Chadijah,  who  died  in  619,  aged  sixty-five,  but  only  two 
months  after  her  death  he  married  a  widow  named  Sawda  (April 
619),  and  gradually  increased  his  harem,  especially  during  the 
last  two  years  of  his  life.    When  he  heard  of  a  pretty  woman, 
says  Sprenger,  he  asked  her  hand,  but  was  occasionally  refused. 
He  had  at  least  fourteen  legal  wives,  and  a  number  of  slave  con- 
cubines besides.    At  his  death  he  left  nine  widows.    He  claimed 
special  revelations  which  gave  him  greater  liberty  of  sexual  indul- 
gence than  ordinary  Moslems  (who  are  restricted  to  four  wives), 
and  exempted  him  from  the  prohibition  of  marrying  near  rela- 
tives.1   He  married  by  divine  command,  as  he  alleged,  Zeynab, 
the  wife  of  Zayd,  his  adopted  son  and  bosom-friend.    His  wives 
were  all  widows  except  Ayesha.    One  of  them  was  a  beautiful 
and  rich  Jewess;  she  was  despised  by  her  sisters,  who  sneeringly 
said:  "Pshaw,  a  Jewess!"    He  told  her  to  reply:  "Aaron  is  my 
father  and  Moses  my  uncle !"    Ayesha,  the  daughter  of  Abft 
Bakr,  was  his  especial  favorite.    He  married  her  when  she  was 
a  girl  of  nine  years,  and  he  fifty-three  years  old.    She  brought 
her  doll-babies  with  her,  and  amused  and  charmed  the  prophet 
by  her  playfulness,  vivacity  and  wit.    She  could  read,  had  a  copy 
of  the  Koran,  and  knew  more  about  theology,  genealogy  and 
poetry  than  all  the  other  widows  of  Mohammed.    He  announced 
that  she  would  be  his  wife  also  in  Paradise.    Yet  she  was  not 
free  from  suspicion  of  unfaithfulness  until  he  received  a  revela- 

1  He  speaks  freely  of  this  subject  in  the  Koran,  Sur.  4^  and  33.  In  the  latter 
(Bodman's  transl.,  p.  568)  this  scandalous  passage  occurs:  "O  Prophet  I  we 
allow  thee  thy  wives  whom  thou  hast  dowered,  and  the  slaves  whom  thy  right 
hand  possesseth  out  of  the  booty  which  God  hath  granted  thee,  and  the  daugh- 
ters of  thy  uncle,  and  of  thy  paternal  and  maternal  aunts  who  fled  with  thee  to 
Medina,  and  any  believing  woman  who  hath  given  herself  up  to  the  Prophet^ 
if  the  Prophet  desired  to  wed  her,  a  privilege  for  thee  above  the  rest  of  the  faith- 
ful." Afterwards  in  the  same  Sura  (p.  569 )  he  says :  "  Ye  must  not  trouble  the 
Apostle  of  God,  nor  marry  his  wives  after  him  forever.  This  would  be  a  grave 
offence  with  God." 


?  43.  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  ISLAM.  171 

tion  of  her  innocence.  After  his  death  she  was  the  most  sacred 
person  among  the  Moslems  and  the  highest  authority  on  religious 
and  legal  questions.  She  survived  her  husband  forty-seven 
years  and  died  at  Medina,  July  13,  678,  aged  sixty-seven  years.1 

In  his  ambition  for  a  hereditary  dynasty,  Mohammed  was 
sadly  disappointed :  he  lost  his  two  sons  by  Chadijah,  and  a  third 
one  by  Mary  the  Egyptian,  his  favorite  concubine* 

To  compare  such  a  man  with  Jesus,  is  preposterous  and  even 
blasphemous.  Jesus  was  the  sinless  Saviour  of  sinners ;  Moham- 
med was  a  sinner,  and  he  knew  and  confessed  it.  He  falls  far 
below  Moses,  or  Elijah,  or  any  of  the  prophets  and  apostles  in 
moral  purity.  But  outside  of  the  sphere  of  revelation,  he  ranks 
with  Confucius,  and  Cakya  Muni  the  Buddha,  among  the 
greatest  founders  of  religions  and  lawgivers  of  nations. 

§  43.  The  Conquests  of  Isl&m. 

"  The  sword/'  says  Mohammed,  "  is  the  key  of  heaven  and 
hell;  a  drop  of  blood  shed  in  the  cause  of  Allah,  a  night  spent 
in  arms,  is  of  more  avail  than  two  months  of  fasting  or  prayer : 
whosoever  falls  in  battle,  his  sins  are  forgiven,  and  at  the  day  of 
judgment  his  limbs  shall  be  supplied  by  the  wings  of  angels  and 
cherubim."  This  is  the  secret  of  his  success.  Idolaters  had  to 
choose  between  Isl£m,  slavery,  and  death;  Jews  and  Christians 
were  allowed  to  purchase  a  limited  toleration  by  the  payment  of 
tribute,  but  were  otherwise  kept  in  degrading  bondage.  History 

1  Sprenger,  HI.  61-87,  gives  a  foil  account  of  fourteen  wives  of  Mohammed, 
and  especially  of  Ayesha,  according  to  the  list  of  Zohry  and  Ibn  Saad.  Sprenger 
says,  p.  37:  "Der  Prophet  hatte  Tcdne  Wohnmgfur  sichsdbst.  Sein  Hauptgyartier 
war  in  der  Suite  der  Ayischa  und  die  offentlichen  Geschdfte  verrichtete  er  in  der 
Moschee,  aber  ear  brochte  jede  Nockt  bei  einer  seiner  Frauen  m  und  war,  me,  es 
scheintj  auch  ihr  Qast  beim  HJssen.  Er  ging  aber  taglich,  wenn  er  bei  guter  Laune 
war,  bei  atten  seinen  Frauen  umher,  gabjeder  einen  Kuss,  spracJi  einige  Worte  und 
spieUe  mit  ihr.  Wir  haben  gesehen,  doss  seme  Famflie  neun  Hutten  besass;  dies 
war  auch  die  AnmU  der  Frauen,  wekhe  er  bei  seinem  Tode  hinterliess.  Doch  gab 
es  Zetien,  m  denen  sein  Harem  starker  war.  Er  brachte  dann  einige  seiner  Schonen 
in  den  Hausern  von  NacJibarn  unter.  Es  Jam  auch  wr,  doss  auei  Frauen,  eine 
Hutte  bewohnten.  StiefMnder  wohnten,  so  lange  siejwng  waren,  bei  ihren  Muttern." 


172  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

records  no  soldiers  of  greater  bravery  inspired  by  religion  than 
the  Moslem  conquerors,  except  Cromwell's  Ironsides,  and  the 
Scotch  Covenanters,  who  fought  with  purer  motives  for  a  nobler 
cause. 

The  Califs,  Mohammed's  successors,  who  like  him  united  the 
priestly  and  kingly  dignity;  carried  on  his  conquests  with  the 
battle-cry:  "Before  you  is  paradise,  behind  you  are  death  and 
hell/'  Inspired  by  an  intense  fanaticism,  and  aided  by  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Byzantine  empire  and  the  internal  distractions  of  the 
Greek  Church,  the  wild  sons  of  the  desert,  who  were  content  with 
the  plainest  food,  and  disciplined  in  the  school  of  war,  hardship 
and  recklessness  of  life,  subdued  Palestine,  Syria,  and  Egypt, 
embracing  the  classical  soil  of  primitive  Christianity.  Thousands 
of  Christian  churches  in  the  patriarchal  dioceses  of  Jerusalem, 
Antioch  and  Alexandria,  were  ruthlessly  destroyed,  or  converted 
into  mosques.  Twenty-one  years  after  the  death  of  Mohammed  the 
Crescent  ruled  over  a  realm  as  large  as  the  Eoman  Empire.  Even 
Constantinople  was  besieged  twice  (668  and  717),  although  in 
vain.  The  terrible  efficacy  of  the  newly  invented  "Greek  fire/' 
and  the  unusual  severity  of  a  long  winter  defeated  the  enemy, 
and  saved  Eastern  and  Northern  Europe  from  the  blight  of 
the  Koran.  A  large  number  of  nominal  Christians  who  had  so 
fiercely  quarreled  with  each  other  about  unfruitful  subtleties  of 
their  creeds,  surrendered  their  faith  to  the  conqueror.  In  707 
the  North  African  provinces,  where  ouce  St.  Augustin  had 
directed  the  attention  of  the  church  to  the  highest  problems  of 
theology  and  religion,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Arabs. 

In  711  they  crossed  from  Africa  to  Spain  and  established  an 
independent  Califate  at  Cordova.  The  moral  degeneracy  and 
dissensions  of  the  Western  Goths  facilitated  their  subjugation. 
Encouraged  by  such  success,  the  Arabs  crossed  tihe  Pyrenees  and 
boasted  that  1ihey  would  soon  stable  their  horses  in  St.  Peter's 
cathedral  in  Rome,  but  the  defeat  of  Abd-er  Rahman  by  Charles 
Martel  between  Poitiers  and  Tours  in  732 — one  hundred  and  ten 
years  after  the  Hegira — checked  their  progress  in  the  West,  and 


5  43.  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  ISLAM.  173 

in  1492 — the  same  year  in  which.  Columbus  discovered  a  new 
Continent — Ferdinand  defeated  the  last  Moslem  army  in  Spain 
at  the  gates  of  Granada  and  drove  them  back  to  Africa.  The 
palace  and  citadel  of  the  Alhambra,  with  its  court  of  lions,  its 
delicate  arabesques  and  fretwork,  and  its  aromatic  gardens  and 
groves,  still  remains,  a  gorgeous  ruin  of  the  power  of  the  Moor- 
ish kings. 

In  the  East  the  Moslems  made  new  conquests.  In  the  ninth 
century  they  subdued  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  a  large  part  of 
India.  They  reduced  the  followers  of  Zoroaster  to  a  few  scattered 
communities,  and  conquered  a  vast  territory  of  Braiminism  and 
Buddhism  even  beyond  the  Ganges.  The  Seliuk  Turks  in  the 
eleventh  century,  and  the  Mongols  in  the  thirteenth,  adopted  the 
religion  of  the  Califs  whom  they  conquered.  Constantinople 
fell  at  last  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks  in  1453,  and  the  magni- 
ficent church  of  St.  Sophia,  the  glory  of  Justinian's  reign,  was 
turned  into  a  mosque  where  the  Koran  is  read  instead  of  the 
Gospel,  the  reader  holding  the  drawn  scimetar  in  his  hand.  From 
Constantinople  the  Turks  threatened  the  German  empire,  and  it 
was  not  till  1683  that  they  were  finally  defeated  by  Sobieski  at 
the  gates  of  Vienna  and  driven  back  across  the  Danube. 

With  the  senseless  fury  of  fanaticism  and  pillage  the  Tartar 
Turks  have  reduced  the  fairest  portions  of  Eastern  Europe  to 
desolation  and  ruin.  With  sovereign  contempt  for  all  other 
religions,  they  subjected  the  Christians  to  a  condition  of  virtual 
servitude,  treating  them  like  "  dogs/'  as  they  call  them.  They  did 
not  intermeddle  with  their  internal  affairs,  but  made  merchandise 
of  ecclesiastical  offices.  The  death  penaliy  was  suspended  over 
every  attempt  to  convert  a  Mussulman.  Apostasy  from  the  faith 
is  also  treason  to  the  state,  and  merits  the  severest  punishment  in 
this  world,  as  well  as  everlasting  damnation  in  the  world  to  come. 

After  the  Crimean  war  in  1856,  the  death  penalty  for  apostasy 
was  nominally  abolished  in  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan,  and  in 
the  Berlin  Treaty  of  1878  liberty  of  religion  (more  ihan  mere 
toleration)  was  guaranteed  to  all  existing  sects  in  the  Turkish 


174  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

empire,  but  the  old  fanaticism  will  yield  only  to  superior  force , 
and  the  guarantee  of  liberty  is  not  understood  to  imply  the  liberty 
of  propaganda  among  Moslems.  Christian  sects  have  liberiy  to 
prey  on  each  other,  but  woe  to  them  if  they  invade  the  sacred 
province  of  IsMm.1 

A  Mohammedan  tradition  contains  a  curious  prophecy  that 
Christ,  the  son  of  Mary,  will  return  as  the  last  Calif  to  judge 
the  world.2  The  impression  is  gaining  ground  among  the  Mos- 
lems that  they  will  be  unable  ultimately  to  withstand  the  steady 
progress  of  Christianity  and  Western  civilization.  The  Sultan, 
the  successor  of  the  Califs,  is  a  mere  shadow  on  the  throne 
trembling  for  his  life.  The  dissolution  of  the  Turkish  empire* 
which  may  be  looked  for  at  no  distant  future,  will  break  the 
backbone  of  Isl4m,  and  open  the  way  for  the  true  solution  of 
the  Eastern  question — the  moral  regeneration  of  the  Lands  of 
the  Bible  by  the  Christianity  of  the  Bible. 

§  44.  The  Koran,  and  the  Bibk. 

"Mohammed's  truth  lay  in  a  sacred  Book, 
Christ's  in  a  holy  Life  "— MILNES  (Palm-Leaves). 

The  Koran3  is  the  sacred  book,  the  Bible  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans. It  is  their  creed,  their  code  of  laws,  their  liturgy.  It 
claims  to  be  the  product  of  divine  inspiration  by  the  arch- 

1  If  Protestant  missionaries  enjoy  more  toleration  and  liberty  in  Turkey  than 
in  Eoman  Catholic  Austria  and  in  Greek  Catholic  Bussia,  it  must  be  understood 
with  the  above  limitation.    Turkish  toleration  springs  from  proud  contempt  of 
Christianity  in  all  its  forms;  Bussian  and  Austrian  intolerance,  from  despotism 
and  bigoted  devotion  to  a  particular  form  of  Christianity. 

2  Among  the  traditional  sayings  of  Mohammed  is  this  (Gerock,  L  c.,  p.  132): 
"I  am  nearest  to  Jesus,  both  as  to  the  beginning  and  the  end;  for  there  is  no 
prophet  between  me  and  Jesus;  and  at  the  end  of  time  he  will  be  my  repre- 
sentative and  my  successor.    The  prophets  are  all  brethren,  as  they  have  one 
father,  though  their  mothers  are  different    The  origin  of  all  their  religions  is 
the  same,  and  between  me  and  Jesus  there  is  no  other  prophet," 

3  Arabic  qurdn,  i.  e.  the  reading  or  that  which  should  be  read,  the  book.    It 
is  read  over  and  over  again  in  all  the  mosques  and  schools. 


g  44.  THE  KOBAN,  AND  THE  BIBLE.  175 

angel  Gabriel,  who  performed  the  function  assigned  to  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  Scriptures.1  The  Mohammedans  distinguish 
two  kinds  of  revelations:  those  which  were  literally  delivered  as 
spoken  by  the  angel  (called  Wdhee  Ifatloo,  or  the  word  of  God), 
and  those  which  give  the  sense  of  the  inspired  instruction  in  the 
prophet's  own  words  (called  Waliee  Ghair  Hatloo,  or  Hadees). 
The  prophet  is  named  only  five  times,  but  is  addressed  by 
Gabriel  all  through  the  book  with  the  word  Say,  as  the  reci- 
pient and  sacred  penman  of  the  revelations.  It  consists  of  114 
Suras2  and  6,225  verses.  Each  Sura  (except  the  ninth)  begins 
with  the  formula  (of  Jewish  origin) :  "  In  the  name  of  Allah, 
the  God  of  Mercy,  the  Merciful."3 

1Sura53(RodweU,p.64): 

"The  Koran  is  no  other  than  a  revelation  revealed  to  him: 
One  terrible  in  power  [Gabriel,  i  e.  the  Strong  one  of  God]  taught  it  him. 
Endued  with  wisdom,  with  even  balance  stood  he 
In  the  highest  part  of  the  horizon. 
Hb  came  nearer  and  approached, 
And  was  at  the  distance  of  two  bows,  or  even  closer,— 
And  he  revealed  to  his  servant  what  he  revealed." 

1  add  the  view  of  a  learned  modern  Mohammedan,  Syed  Ahmed  Khan  Ba- 
hador,  who  says  (I.  c.,  Essay  on  the  Holy  Koran) :  "The  Holy  Koran  was  deli- 
vered to  Mohammed  neither  in  the  form  of  graven  tablets  of  stone,  nor  in  that 
of  cloven  tongues  of  fire;  nor  was  it  necessary  that  the  followers  of  Mohammed, 
like  those  of  Moses,  should  be  furnished  with  a  copy  or  counterpart,  in  case  the 
original  should  be  lost.    No  mystery  attended  the  delivery  of  it,  for  it  was  on 
Mohammed's  heart  that  it  was  engraven,  and  it  was  with  his  tongue  that  it  was 
communicated  to  all  Arabia.    The  heart  of  Mohammed  was  the  Sinai  where  he 
received  the  revelation,  and  his  tablets  of  stone  were  the  hearts  of  true  believers." 

2  Sura  means  either  revelation,  or  chapter,  or  part  of  a  chapter.    The  Mo- 
hammedan commentators  refer  it  primarily  to  the  succession  of  subjects  or  parts, 
like  the  rows  of  bricks  in  a  wall.    The  titles  of  the  Suras  are  generally  taken 
from  some  leading  topic  or  word  in  each,  as  "The  Sun,"  "The  Star,"  "The 
Charges,"   "The  Scattering,"  "The  Adoration,"  "The  Spider,"  "Women," 
"Hypocrites,"  "Light,"  "Jonas,"  "The  Cave,"  "The  Night  Journey,"  "The 
Cow,"  "The  Battle,"  "The  Victory." 

3  "Bimittdhi  'rrdhonwi  'rrahim."    According  to  the  Ulama  (the  professors 
of  religion  and  law),  "God  of  mercy"  means  merciful  in  great  things;  "the 
Merciful"  means  merciful  in  small  things.    But,  according  to  E.  W.  Lane, 
"the  first  expresses  an  occasional  sensation,  the  second  a  constant  quality."    ID 
other  words,  the  one  refers  to  acts,  the  other  to  a  permanent  attribute. 


176  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

The  Koran  is  composed  in  imperfect  metre  and  rhyme  (which 
is  as  natural  and  easy  in  the  Arabic  as  in  the  Italian  language). 
Its  language  is  considered  the  purest  Arabic.  Its  poetry  some- 
what resembles  Hebrew  poetry  in  Oriental  imagery  and  a  sort 
of  parallelism  or  correspondence  of  clauses,  but  it  loses  its  charm 
in  a  translation;  while  the  Psalms  and  Prophets  can  be  repro- 
duced in  any  language  without  losing  their  original  force  and 
beauty.  The  Koran  is  held  in  superstitious  veneration,  and  was 
regarded  till  recently  as  too  sacred  to  be  translated  and  to  be 
sold  like  a  common  book.1 

Mohammed  prepared  and  dictated  the  Koran  from  time  to 
time  as  he  received  the  revelations  and  progressed  in  his  career, 
not  for  readers,  but  for  hearers,  leaving  much  to  the  suggestive 
action  of  the  public  recital,  either  from  memory  or  from  copies 
taken  down  by  his  friends.  Hence  its  occasional,  fragmentary 
character.  About  a  year  after  his  death,  at  the  direction  of 
Abu-Bakr,  his  father-in-law  and  immediate  successor,  Zayd, 
the  chief  ansar  or  amanuensis  of  the  Prophet,  collected  the 
scattered  fragments  of  the  Koran  "from  palm-leaves,  and  tab- 
lets of  white  stone,  and  from  the  breasts  of  men,"  but  without 
any  regard  to  chronological  order  or  continuity  of  subjects. 
Abu-Bakr  committed  this  copy  to  the  custody  of  Haphsa,  one 
of  Mohammed's  widows.  It  remained  the  standard  during  the 
ten  years  of  Omar's  califate.  As  the  different  readings  of 
copies  occasioned  serious  disputes,  Zayd,  with  several  Koreish, 
was  commissioned  to  secure  the  purity  of  the  text  in  the  Meccan 
dialect,  and  all  previous  copies  were  called  in  and  burned.  The 
recension  of  Zayd  has  been  handed  down  with  scrupulous  care 
unaltered  to  this  day,  and  various  readings  are  almost  unknown ; 
the  differences  being  confined  to  the  vowel-points,  which  were 

1  These  scruples  are  gradually  giving  way,  at  least  in  India,  where  "printed 
copies,  with  inter-lineal  versions  in  Persian  and  Urdoo— -too  literal  to  be  intel- 
ligible—are commonly  used.1'  Muir,  The  Cordn,  p.  48.  The  manuscript  copies 
in  the  mosques,  in  the  library  of  the  Khedive  in  Cairo,  and  in  many  European 
libraries,  are  equal  in  caligraphic  beauty  to  the  finest  mediaeval  manuscripts  of 
the  Bible. 


2  44.  THE  KOEAN,  AND  THE  BIBLEL  177 

invented  at  a  later  period.  The  Koran  contains  many  inconsis- 
tencies and  contradictions;  but  the  expositors  hold  that  the  later 
command  supersedes  the  earlier. 

The  restoration  of  the  chronological  order  of  the  Suras  is  neces- 
sary for  a  proper  understanding  of  the  gradual  development  of 
Isl^m  in  the  mind  and  character  of  its  author-1  There  is  a  con- 
siderable difference  between  the  Suras  of  the  earlier,  middle,  and 
later  periods.  In  the  earlier,  the  poetic,  wild,  and  rhapsodical  ele- 
ment predominates;  in  the  middle,  the  prosaic,  narrative,  and 
missionary;  in  the  later,  the  official  and  legislative.  Mohammed 
began  with  descriptions  of  natural  objects,  of  judgment,  of  heaven 
and  hell,  impassioned,  fragmentary  utterances,  mostly  in  brief 
sentences ;  he  went  on  to  dogmatic  assertions,  historical  statements 
from  Jewish  and  Christian  sources,  missionary  appeals  and  per- 
suasions; and  he  ended  with  the  dictatorial  commands  of  a 
legislator  and  warrior.  "  He  who  at  Mecca  is  the  admonisher 
and  persuader,  at  Medina  is  the  legislator  and  the  warrior,  wbe 
dictates  obedience,  and  uses  other  weapons  than  the  pen  of  the 
poet  and  the  scribe.  When  business  pressed,  as  at  Medina, 
poetry  makes  way  for  prose,2  and  although  touches  of  the  poeti- 
cal element  occasionally  break  forth,  and  he  has  to  defend  him- 
self up  to  a  very  late  period  against  the  charge  of  being  merely 
a  poet,  yet  this  is  rarely  the  case  in  the  Medina  Suras;  and  we 
are  startled  by  finding  obedience  to  God  and  the  Apostle,  God's 
gifts  and  the  Apostle's,  God's  pleasure  and  the  Apost&s,  spoken 
of  in  the  same  breath,  and  epithets,  and  attributes,  applied  to 
Allah,  openly  applied  to  Mohammed,  as  in  Sura  IX."3 

1  The  present  order,  says  Muir  (Goran,  p.  41),  Is  almost  a  direct  inversion  of 
the  natural  chronological  order;  the  longest  which  mostly  belong  to  the  later 
period  of  Mohammed,  being  placed  first,  and  the  shortest  last.  Weil,  Sprenger, 
and  Muir  have  paid  much  attention  to  the  chronological  arrangement  !Nol- 
deke  also,  in  his  Gesehickte  des  Qfrans,  has  feed  the  order  of  the  Suras,  with  a 
reasonable  degree  of  certainty  on  the  basis  of  Mohammedan  traditions  and  a 
searching  analysis  of  the  text;  and  he  has  been  mainly  followed  by  Eodwell  in 
his  English  version. 

a  The  ornament  of  metre  and  Ayme,  however,  is  preserved  throughout. 

«Bodwell,p.X. 


178  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  B.  590-1049. 

The  materials  of  the  Koran,  as  far  as  they  are  not  productions 
of  the  author's  own  imagination,  were  derived  from  the  floating 
traditions  of  Arabia  and  Syria,  from  rabbinical  Judaism,  and  a 
corrupt  Christianity,  and  adjusted  to  his  purposes. 

Mohammed  had,  in  his  travels,  come  in  contact  with  profes- 
sors of  different  religions,  and  on  his  first  journey  with  camel- 
drivers  he  feU  in  with  a  Nestorian  monk  of  Bostra,  who  goes 
by  different  names  (Bohari,  Bahyra,  Sergius,  George),  and  wel- 
comed the  youthful  prophet  with  a  presage  of  his  future  great- 
ness.1 His  wife  Chadijah  and  her  cousin  Waraka  (a  reputed 
convert  to  Christianity,  or  more  probably  a  Jew)  are  said  to 
have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews 
and  the  Christians. 

The  Koran,  especially  in  the  earlier  Suras,  speaks  often  and 
highly  of  the  Scriptures;  calls  them  "the  Book  of  God,"  "the 
Word  of  God/'  "the  Tour£t"  (Thora,  the  Pentateuch),  "the 
Gospel"  (Ynyil), and  describes  the  Jews  and  Christians  as  "the 
people  of  the  Book,"  or  "of  the  Scripture,"  or  "of  the  Gospel." 
It  finds  in  the  Scriptures  prophecies  of  Mohammed  and  his  suc- 
cess, and  contains  narratives  of  the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve,  Noah 
and  the  Deluge,  Abraham  and  Lot,  the  -destruction  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  Moses  and  Joseph,  John  the  Baptist,  the  Virgin 
Mary  and  Jesus,  sometimes  in  the  words  of  the  Bible,  but  mostly 
distorted  and  interspersed  with  rabbinical  and  apocryphal  fables.2 

It  is  quite  probable  that  portions  of  the  Bible  were  read  to  Mo- 
hammed; but  it  is  very  improbable  that  he  read  it  himself;  for 
according  to  the  prevailing  Moslem  tradition  he  could  not  read 
at  all,  and  there  were  no  Arabic  translations  before  the  Moham- 
medan conquests,  which  spread  the  Arabic  language  in  the  con- 
quered countries.  Besides,  if  he  had  read  the  Bible  with  any 
degree  of  care,  he  could  not  have  made  such  egregious  blunders. 

1  Muir,  Life  of  Moh.,  1. 35i  Stanley,  p.  365. 

*  See  a  collection  of  these  correspondences  in  the  original  Arabic  and  in 
English  in  Sir  William  Mini's  Goran,  pp.  66  sqq.  Muir  concludes  that  Mo- 
hammed knew  the  Bible,  and  believed  in  its  divine  origin  and  authority. 


2  44.  THE  KORAN  AND  THE  BIBLE.       179 

^ 

The  few  allusions  to  Scripture  phraseology — as  "giving  alms  to 
be  seen  of  men/'  "none  forgiveth  sins  but  God  only'7 — may 
be  derived  from  personal  intercourse  and  popular  traditions. 
Jesus  (Isa)  is  spoken  of  as  "the  Son  of  Mary,  strengthened 
by  the  Holy  Spirit."  Noah  (Nuh),  Abraham  (Ibrahym),  Moses 
•  (Jftba),  Aaron  (Harun),  are  often  honorably  mentioned,  but 
apparently  always  from  imperfect  traditional  or  apocryphal 
sources  of  information.1 

The  Koran  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  great  books  of  the 
world.  It  is  not  only  a  book,  but  an  institution,  a  code  of  civil 
and  religious  laws,  ckiming  divine  origin  and  authority.  It 
has  left  its  impress  upon  ages.  It  feeds  to  this  day  the  devo- 
tions, and  regulates  the  private  and  public  life,  of  more  than  a 
hundred  millions  of  human  beings.  It  has  many  passages  of 
poetic  beauty,  religious  fervor,  and  wise  counsel,  but  mixed  with 
absurdities,  bombast,  unmeaning  images,  low  sensuality.  It 
abounds  in  repetitions  and  contradictions,  which  are  not  removed 
by  the  convenient  theory  of  abrogation.  It  alternately  attracts 
and  repels,  and  is  a  most  wearisome  book  to  read.  Gibbon  calls 
the  Koran  "a  glorious  testimony  to  the  unity  of  God,"  but  also, 
very  properly,  an  "endless,  incoherent  rhapsody  of  fable  and 
precept  and  declamation,  which  seldom  excites  a  sentiment  or 
idea,  which  sometimes  crawls  in  the  dust,  and  is  sometimes  lost 

1  Muir  (Life,  EL  313, 278)  and  Stanley  (p.  366)  adduce,  as  traces  of  a  feint 
knowledge  of  the  Canonical  Gospels,  the  account  of  the  birth  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist in  the  Koran,  and  the  assumption  by  Mohammed  of  the  name  of  Parade&us 
under  the  distorted  form  of  Peridytus,  the  Ittustrwus.  But  the  former  does  not 
strike  me  as  being  taken  from  St.  Luke,  else  he  could  not  have  made  such  a 
glaring  chronological  mistake  as  to  identify  Mary  with  Miriam,  the  sister  of 
Moses.  And  as  to  the  promise  of  the  Paraclete,  which  only  occurs  in  St.  John, 
it  certainly  must  have  passed  into  popular  tradition,  for  the  word  occurs  also 
in  the  Talmud.  If  Mohammed  had  read  St.  John,  he  must  have  seen  that  the 
Paraclete  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  would  have  identified  him  with  Gabriel, 
rather  than  with  Mmseli  Palmer's  opinion  is  that  Mohammed  could  neither 
read  nor  write,  but  acquired  his  knowledge  from  the  traditions  which  were 
then  current  in  Arabia  among  Jewish  and  Christian  tribes.  The  QuSdn,  L, 
p.  xlviL 


180  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1040. 

* 

in  the  clouds."1  Beiske*  denounces  it  as  the  most  absurd  book 
and  a  scourge  to  a  reader  of  sound  common  sense.  Goethe,  one 
of  the  best  judges  of  literary  and  poetic  merit,  characterizes  the 
style  as  severe,  great,  terrible,  and  at  times  truly  sublime. 
"Detailed  injunctions,"  he  says,  "of  things  allowed  and  forbid- 
den, legendary  stories  of  Jewish  and  Christian  religion,  amplifi- 
cations of  all  kinds,  boundless  tautologies  and  repetitions,  form 
the  body  of  this  sacred  volume/  which  to  us,  as  often  as  we 
approach  it,  is  repellent  anew,  next  attracts  us  ever  anew,  and 
fills  us  with  admiration,  and  finally  forces  us  into  veneration/' 
He  finds  the  kernel  of  Isl£m  in  the  second  Sura,  where  belief 
and  unbelief  with  heaven  and  hell,  as  their  sure  reward,  are 
contrasted.  Carlyle  calls  the  Koran  "the  confused  ferment  of 
a  great  rude  human  soul;  rude,  untutored,  that  cannot  even 
read,  but  fervent,  earnest,  struggling  vehemently  to  utter  itself 
in  words  ;"  and  says  of  Mohammedanism :  "  Call  it  not  false, 
look  not  at  the  falsehood  of  it;  look  at  the  truth  of  it  For 
these  twelve  centuries  it  has  been  the  religion  and  life-guidance 
of  the  fifth  part  of  the  whole  kindred  of  mankind.  Above 
all,  it  has  been  a  religion  heartily  believed,"  But  with  all  his 
admiration,  Carlyle  confesses  that  the  reading  of  the  Koran  in 
English  is  "as  toilsome  a  task"  as  he  ever  undertook.  "A 
wearisome,  confused  jumble,  crude,  incondite;  endless  iterations, 
long-windedness,  entanglement;  insupportable  stupidity,  in 
short,  nothing  but  a  sense  of  duly  could  carry  any  European 
through  the  Koran.  We  read  it,  as  we  might  in  the  State-Paper 
Office,  unreadable  masses  of  lumber,  that  we  may  get  some 
glimpses  of  a  remarkable  man."  And  yet  there  are  Mohamme- 
dan doctors  who  are  reported  to  have  read  the  Koran  seventy 
thousand  times!  What  a  difference  of  national  and  religious 
taste !  Emanuel  Deutsch  finds  the  grandeur  of  the  Koran  chiefly 
in  its  Arabic  diction,  "the  peculiarly  dignified,  impressive,  sono- 
rous nature  of  Semitic  sound  and  parlance;  its  sesguipedaMa 

1  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  It.  &,  Ck  50. 

2  As  quoted  by  Tholuck. 


2  41  THE  KORAff  AND  THE  BIBLE.  181 

verba,  with  their  crowd  of  prefixes  and  affixes,  each  of  them 
affirming  its  own  position,  while  consciously  bearing  upon  and 
influencing  the  central  root,  which  they  envelop  like  a  garment 
of  many  folds,  or  as  chosen  courtiers  move  round  the  anointed 
person  of  the  king."  E.  H.  Palmer  says  that  the  claim  of  the 
Koran  to  miraculous  eloquence,  however  absurd  it  may  sound 
to  Western  ears,  was  and  is  to  the  Arab  incontrovertible,  and  he 
accounts  for  the  immense  influence  which  it  has  always  exercised 
upon  the  Arab  mind,  by  the  fact,  "that  it  consists  not  merely 
of  the  enthusiastic  utterances  of  an  individual,  but  of  the  popu- 
lar sayings,  choice  pieces  of  eloquence,  and  favorite  legends  cur- 
rent among  the  desert  tribes  for  ages  before  this  time.  Arabic 
authors  speak  frequently  of  the  celebrity  attained  by  the  ancient 
Arabic  orators,  such  as  Sh£ib&n  Wail;  but  unfortunately  no 
specimens  of  their  works  have  come  down  to  us.  The  Qur*dn, 
however,  enables  us  to  judge  of  the  speeches  which  took  so 
strong  a  hold  upon  their  countrymen."1 

Of  all  books,  not  excluding  the  Vedas,  the  Koran  is  the  most 
powerful  rival  of  the  Bible,  but  falls  infinitely  below  it  in  con- 
tents and  form. 

Both  contain  the  moral  and  religious  code  of  the  nations 
which  own  it;  the  Koran,  like  the  Old  Testament,  is  also  a 
civil  and  political  code.  Botib.  are  oriental  in  style  and  imagery. 
Both  have  the  fresh  character  of  occasional  composition  growing 
out  of  a  definite  historical  situation  and  specific  wants.  But  the 
Bible  is  the  genuine  revelation  of  the  only  true  God  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  to  himself;  the  Koran  is  a  mock-revela- 
tion without  Christ  and  without  atonement  Whatever  is  true 
in  the  Koran  is  borrowed  from  the  Bible;  what  is  original,  is 
false  or  frivolous.  The  Bible  is  historical  and  embodies  the 
noblest  aspirations  of  the  human  race  in  all  ages  to  the  final 
consummation ;  the  Koran  begins  and  stops  with  Mohammed. 
The  Bible  combines  eiylless  variety  with  unity,  universal  appli- 

1  The  QuSdn,  Introd.  I,  p.  1. 


182  FOUETH  PEKIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

cabillty  with  local  adaptation;  the  Koran  is  uniform  and  mono- 
tonous, confined  to  one  country,  one  state  of  society,  and  one 
class  of  minds.  The  Bible  is  the  book  of  the  world,  and  is 
constantly  travelling  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  carrying  spiritual 
food  to  all  races  and  to  all  classes  of  society;  the  Koran  stays 
in  the  Orient,  and  is  insipid  to  all  who  have  once  tasted  the 
true  word  of  the  living  God.1  Even  the  poetry  of  the  Koran 
never  rises  to  the  grandeur  and  sublimity  of  Job  or  Isaiah,  the 
lyric  beauty  of  the  Psalms,  the  sweetness  and  loveliness  of  the 
Song  of  Solomon,  the  sententious  wisdom  of  the  Proverbs,  and 
Ecclesiastes. 

A  few  instances  must  suffice  for  illustration. 

The  first  Sura,  called  "the  Sura  of  Praise  and  Prayer/'  which 
is  recited  by  the  Mussulmans  several  times  in  each  of  the  five 
daily  devotions,  fills  for  them  the  place  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and 
contains  the  same  number  of  petitions.  We  give  it  in  a  rhymed, 
and  in  a  more  literal  translation : 

"In  the  name  of  Allah,  the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate  I 
Praise  be  to  Allah,  who  the  three  worlds  made, 
The  Merciful,  the  Compassionate, 
The  King  of  the  day  of  Fate, 

Thee  alone  do  we  worship,  and  of  Thee  alone  do  we  ask  aid. 
Guide  us  to  the  path  that  is  straight — 
The  path  of  those  to  whom  Thy  love  is  great, 
Not  those  on  whom  is  hate, 
Nor  they  that  deviate!  Amen."2 

"In  the  name  of  God,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merciful 
Praise  be  to  God,  Lord  of  the  worlds ! 
The  Compassionate,  the  Merciful ! 
King  on  the  day  of  judgment  I 

Thee  only  do  we  worship,  and  to  Thee  do  we  cry  for  help* 
Guide  Thou  us  on  the  right  path, 
The  path  of  those  to  whom  Thou  art  gracious; 
Not  of  those  with  whom  Thou  art  angered, 
STor  of  those  who  go  astray." 8 

1  On  this  difference  Ewald  makes  some  good  remarks  in  the  first  volume  of 
his  Biblical  Theology  (1871),  p.  418. 
8  Translated  by  Lieut.  Burton. 
3  Eodwdl,  The  Koran  (2nd  ed.,  1876),  p.  10. 


2  45.  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  BEUGIOff.  183 

We  add  the  most  recent  version  in  prose : 

*'  In  the  name  of  the  merciful  and  compassionate  God. 

Praise  belongs  to  God,  the  Lord  of  the  worlds,  the  merciful,  the 
compassionate,  the  ruler  of  the  day  of  judgment !  Thee  we  serve  and 
Thee  we  ask  for  aid.  Guide  us  in  the  right  path,  the  path  of  those  Thou 
art  gracious  to ;  not  of  those  Thou  art  wroth  with ;  nor  of  those  who  err  " * 

As  this  Sura  invites  a  comparison  with  the  Lord's  Prayer  infi- 
nitely to  the  advantage  of  the  latter,  so  do  the  Koran's  descrip- 
tions of  Paradise  when  contrasted  with  St.  John's  vision  of  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem : 

"Joyous  on  that  day  shall  be  the  inmates  of  Paradise  in  their  employ; 
In  shades,  on  bridal  couches  reclining,  they  and  their  spouses : 
Therein  shall  they  have  fruits,  and  whatever  they  require — 
*  Peacs !'  shall  be  the  word  on  the  part  of  a  merciful  Lord. 
But  be  ye  separated  this  day,  0  ye  sinners!"  2 

*  *  *  *  #  * 

"The  sincere  servants  of  God 
A  stated  banquet  shall  they  have 
Of  fruits ;  and  honored  shall  they  be 
In  the  gardens  of  delight, 
Upon  couches  face  to  face. 

A  cup  shall  be  borne  round  among  them  from  a  fountain, 
Limpid,  delicious  to  those  who  drink ; 

It  shall  not  oppress  the  sense,  nor  shall  they  therewith  be  drunken, 
And  with  them  are  the  large-eyed  ones  with  modest  refraining  glances, 
fair  like  the  sheltered  egg." 3 

§  45.  The  Mohammedan  Religion. 

Isl4m  is  not  a  new  religion,  nor  can  we  expect  a  new  one  after 
the  appearance  of  that  religion  which  is  perfect  and  intended  for 
all  nations  and  ages.  It  is  a  compound  or  mosaic  of  preexisting 
elements,  a  rude  attempt  to  combine  heathenism,  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  which  Mohammed  found  in  Arabia,  but  in  a  veiy 

1  E.  H.  Palmer,  The  Qw>aw,  Oxford,  1880,  Part  L,  p.  1. 

2  Sura  36  (in  Eodwell,  p.  128). 

8  The  ostrich  egg  carefully  protected  from  dust.  Sura  37  (in  Bodwell,  p 
69).  Brides  and  wives  always  figure  in  the  Mohammedan  Paradise. 


184  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

imperfect  form.1  It  is  professedly  a  restoration  of  the  faith  of 
Abraham,  the  common  father  of  Isaac  and  of  Ishmael.  But  it 
is  not  the  genuine  faith  of  Abraham  with  its  Messianic  hopes 
and  aspirations  looking  directly  to  the  gospel  dispensation  as  its 
goal  and  fulfilment,  but  a  bastard  Judaism  of  Ishmael,  and  the 
post-Christian  and  anti-Christian  Judaism  of  the  Talmud.  Still 
less  did  Mohammed  know  the  pure  religion  of  Jesus  as  laid  down 
in  the  New  Testament,  but  only  a  perversion  and  caricature  of 
it,  such  as  we  find  in  the  wretched  apocryphal  and  heretical 
Gospels.  This  ignorance  of  the  Bible  and  the  corruptions  of 
Eastern  Christianity  with  which  the  Mohammedans  came  in  con- 
tact, furnish  some  excuse  for  their  misbelief  and  stubborn  preju- 
dices. And  yet  even  the  poor  pseudo-Jewish  and  pseudo-Chris- 
tian elements  of  the  Koran  were  strong  enough  to  reform  the 
old  heathenism  of  Arabia  and  Africa  and  to  lift  it  to  a  much 
higher  level.  The  great  and  unquestionable  merit  of  Islam  is 
the  breaking  up  of  idolatry  and  the  diffiision  of  monotheism. 

The  creed  of  Islam  is  simple,  and  consists  of  six  articles  :  God, 
predestination,  the  angels  (good  and  bad),  the  books,  the  pro- 
phets, the  resurrection  and  judgment  with  eternal  reward  and 
eternal  punishment. 


Monotheism  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  system.    It  is  expressed 
in  the  ever-repeated  sentence  :  "  There  is  no  god  but  God  (Allah, 


1  Luther  said  of  the  religion  of  the  Turks:  "Also  ids  ein  Glaub 
yffidet  aus  der  Judm,  Christen  und  Htiden  Olaube."  Milman  (II.  139)  calls 
Mohammedanism  *  the  ^publication  of  a  more  comprehensive  Judaism  with 
some  depraved  forms  of  Christianity."  Kenan  describes  it  as  "the  least  ori- 
ginal "  of  the  religious  creations  of  humanity.  Geiger  and  Deutsch  (both  He- 
brews) give  prominence  to  the  Jewish  element.  "  It  is  not  merely  parallelisms/' 
says  Deutsch,  "reminiscences,  allusions,  technical  terms,  and  the  like,  of  Juda- 
ism, its  lore  and  dogma  and  ceremony,  its  Halacha  and  Haggadah  (which  may 
most  briefly  be  rendered  by  'Law'  and  'Legend'),  which  we  find  in  the 
Koran;  but  we  think  Islam  neither  more  nor  less  than  Judaism  as  adapted  to 
Arabia—  plus  the  apostieship  of  Jesus  and  Mohammed.  Nay,  we  verily  believe 
that  a  great  deal  of  such  Christianity  as  has  found  its  way  into  the  Koran,  has 
found  it  through  Jewish  channels"  (I  c.  p.  64). 


2  45.  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  EELIGION.  185 

i.  e.9  the  true,  the  only  God),  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet  (or 
apostle)." l  Gibbon  calls  this  a  "  compound  of  an  eternal  truth 
and  a  necessary  fiction."  The  first  clause  certainly  is  a  great  and 
mighty  truth  borrowed  fiom  the  Old  Testament  (Deut.  6:4); 
and  is  the  religious  strength  of  the  system.  But  the  Moham- 
medan (like  the  later  Jewish,  the  Socinian,  and  the  Unitarian) 
monotheism  is  abstract,  monotonous,  divested  of  inner  life  and 
fulness,  anti-trinitarian,  and"  so  far  anti-Christian.  One  of  the 
last  things  which  a  Mohammedan  will  admit,  is  the  diviniiy  of 
Christ.  Many  of  the  divine  attributes  are  vividly  apprehended, 
emphasized  and  repeated  in  prayer.  But  Allah  is  a  God  of  infi- 
nite power  and  wisdom,  not  a  God  of  redeeming  love  to  all 
mankind;  a  despotic  sovereign  of  trembling  subjects  and  slaves, 
not  a  loving  Father  of  trustful  children.  He  is  an  object  of 
reverence  and  fear  rather  than  of  love  and  gratitude.  He  is  the 
God  of  fate  who  has  unalterably  foreordained  all  things  evil  as 
well  as  good ;  hence  unconditional  resignation  to  hi™  (this  is  the 
meaning  of  Isl&m)  is  true  wisdom  and  piety.  He  is  not  a  hid- 
den, unknowable  being,  but  a  God  who  has  revealed  T»n>se1f 
through  chosen  messengers,  angelic  and  human.  Adam,  Noah, 
Abraham,  Moses,  and  Jesus  are  his  chief  prophets.2  But  Mo- 
hammed is  the  last  and  the  greatest. 

CHRIST. 

The  Ghristology  of  the  Koran  is  a  carious  mixture  of  facts 
and  apocryphal  fictions,  of  reverence  for  the  man  Jesus  and 
denial  of  his  divine  character.  He  is  called  "the  Messiah  Jesnt 
Son  of  Mary,"  or  "  the  blessed  Son  of  Mary."  3  He  was  a  ser- 
vant and  apostle  of  the  one  true  God,  and  strengthened  by 

1  Ld  ttdha  iW  Allah,  wa  Muhammeda  rrasufo  >Udh.  All&h  is  composed 
of  the  article  d,  *  the,"  and  tZSfc,  "a  god,"  and  is  equivalent  to  the  Hebrew  JK 
andJSfoAim.  He  was  known  to  tJie  Arabs  before  Mohammed,  and  r^arded  as 
the  chief  god  in  their  pantheon. 

1 A  similar  idea  is  presented  in  the  pseudo-Clementine  Homilks. 


186  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

the  Holy  Spirit,  i.  e.,  the  angel  Gabriel  (Dshebril),  who  after- 
wards conveyed  the  divine  revelations  to  Mohammed.  But  he 
is  not  the  Son  of  God ;  for  as  God  has  no  wife,  he  can  have  no 
son.1  He  is  ever  alone,  and  it  is  monstrous  and  blasphemous  to 
associate  another  being  with  Allah. 

Some  of  the  Mohammedan  divines  exempt  Jesus  and  even  his 
mother  from  sin,  and  first  proclaimed  the  dogma  of  the  immacu- 
late conception  of  Mary,  for  which  the  apocryphal  Gospels  pre- 
pared the  way.2  By  a  singular  anachronism,  the  Koran  confounds 
the  Virgin  Mary  with  Miriam,  "  the  sister  of  Aaron  "  (Harun), 
and  Moses  (Ex.  xv.  20 ;  Num.  xxi.  1).  Possibly  Mohammed 
may  have  meant  another  Aaron  (since  he  calls  Mary  "  the  sister 
of  Aaron,"  but  not  "  of  Moses ") ;  some  of  his  commentators, 
however,  assume  that  the  sister  of  Moses  was  miraculously  pre- 
served to  give  birth  to  Jesus.3 

According  to  the  Koran  Jesus  was  conceived  by  the  Virgin 
Mary  at  the  appearance  of  Gabriel  and  born  under  a  palm  tree 
beneath  which  a  fountain  opened.  This  story  is  of  Ebionite 
origin.4  Jesus  preached  in  the  cradle  and  performed  miracles 

1In  rude  misconception  or  wilful  perversion,  Mohammed  seems  to  have 
understood  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  trinity  to  be  a  trinity  of  Father,  Mary, 
and  Jesus.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  identified  with  Gabriel.  ''God  is  only  one 
God  1  Far  be  it  from  his  glory  that  he  should  have  a  son !"  Sura  4,  ver.  169 ; 
comp.  5,  ver.  77.  The  designation  and  worship  of  Mary  as  "the  mother  of 
God"  may  have  occasioned  this  strange  mistake.  There  was  in  Arabia  in  the 
fourth  century  a  sect  of  fanatical  women  called  Collyridians  (Ko^Avp/Jef ),  who 
rendered  divine  worship  to  Mary.  Epiphanius,  ITaer.  79. 

1  As  the  Proteoangdium  Jacoln,  the  Ifoang.  de  Natimtate  Marias,  the  Swing. 
Infantis  Servatoris,  etc.  Gibbon  (ch.  50)  and  Stanley  (p.  367)  trace  the  doctrine 
of  the  immaculate  conception  directly  to  the  Koran.  It  is  said  of  Mary :  "  Re- 
member when  the  angel  said:  *0  Mary!  verily  hath  God  chosen  thee,  and 
purified  thee,  and  chosen  thee  above  the  women  of  the  worlds.'"  But  this 
does  not  necessarily  mean  more  than  Luke  i.  28.  The  Koran  knows  nothing 
of  original  sin  in  the  Christian  sense. 

9  Gerok,  I  e.  pp.  22-28.  This  would  be  a  modification  of  the  rabbinical  fable 
that  ordinary  death  and  corruption  Lad  as  little  power  over  Miriam  as  over 
Moses,  and  that  both  died  by  the  breath  of  Jehovah. 

4  Bosch  (L  c.,  p.  439) :  t(  Ihe  Geburtsgeschichie  Jesu  im  Koran  ist  nichts  anderes 


2  45.  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  KEUGIOK       187 

in  His  infancy  (as  in  the  apocryphal  Gospels),  and  during  His 
public  ministry,  or  rather  Allah  wrought  miracles  through  Him, 
Mohammed  disclaims  the  miraculous  power,  and  relied  upon  the 
stronger  testimony  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrine.  Jesus  proclaimed 
the  pure  doctrine  of  the  imity  of  God  and  disclaimed  divine 
honors. 

The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  is  denied.  He  was  delivered  by  a 
miracle  from  the  death  intended  for  Him,  and  taken  up  by  God 
into  Paradise  with  His  mother.  The  Jews  slew  one  like  Him, 
by  mistake.  This  absurd  docetic  idea  is  supposed  to  be  the  com- 
mon belief  of  Christians.1 

Jesus  predicted  the  coming  of  Mohammed,  when  he  said :  "Q 
children  of  Israel!  of  a  truth  I  am  God's  apostle  to  you  to  con- 
firm the  law  which  was  given  before  me,  and  to  announce  an 
apostle  that  shall  come  after  me  whose  name  shall  be  Ahmed!"2 
Thus  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  "the  other  Paraclete," 
(John  xiv.  16)  was  applied  by  Mohammed  to  himself  by  a  sin- 
gular confusion  of  Paradetos  (irapdxtyros)  with  Peridytos  (xepi- 
*Auroc,  heard  aft  round,  famous)  or  Ahmed  (the  glorified,  theittus- 
trious),  one  of  the  prophet's  names.3 

Owing  to  this  partial  recognition  of  Christianity  Mohammed 

<d&  em  mythologischer  Mythus  aus  Ezech.  47  mit  tingerwobenen  judiscken  Zugen,  der 
seine  Heimath  im  Ebionismus  hat" 

1  Sura  4.  This  view  of  the  crucifixion  is  no  doubt  derived  from  apocryphal 
sources.  The  Gnostic  sect  of  Basilides  supposed  Simon  of  Gyrene,  the  Jfamgd. 
JfarraJbtt,  Judas,  to  have  been  that  other  person  who  was  crucified  instead  of 
Jesus.  Hani  (EpisL  Fund..)  says  that  the  prince  of  darkness  was  nailed  to 
the  cross,  and  wore  the  crown  of  thorns. 

8  Sura  61. 

1  The  Moslems  refer  also  some  other  passages  of  Scripture  to  Mohammed 
and  his  religion,  e.  g.  Gen.  rvi.  10;  xvii.  20;  2cri.  12, 13;  xxvii.  20  (the  pro- 
mise of  God  to  bless  Hagar  and  Ishmael) ;  Deut.  xviii.  15, 18  (the  promise  to 
raise  up  a  prophet  like  Moses) ;  Isa.  xzi.  67  (where  Mohammed  is  supposed 
to  be  meant  by  the  ''rider  on  the  camel/7  as  distinct  from  Jesus,  "the  rider  on 
the  ass  ");  John  iv.  21 ;  1  John  iv.  23  (where  he  is  the  spirit  that  is  of  God, 
because  he  proclaimed  that  Jesus  was  a  true  man,  not  God) ;  Deut.  xxxii.  2 
(where  Sinai  is  said  to  mean  the  Jewish,  Seir  the  Christian,  and  Paran  the 
Mohammedan  revelation). 


188  FOTJETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

was  originally  regarded  not  as  the  founder  of  a  new  religion,  but 
as  one  of  the  chief  heretics.1  The  same  opinion  is  expressed  by 
several  modern  writers,  Catholic  and  Protestant.  Dollinger  says : 
"  Isltoi  must  be  considered  at  bottom  a  Christian  heresy,  the 
bastard  offspring  of  a  Christian  father  and  a  Jewish  mother,  and 
5s  indeed  more  closely  allied  to  Christianity  than  Manichaeism, 
which  is  reckoned  a  Christian  sect." 2  Stanley  calls  Isl&m  an 
"  eccentric  heretical  form  of  Eastern  Christianity,"  and  Ewald 
more  correctly,  "  the  last  and  most  powerful  offshoot  of  Gnosti- 


cism." 


THE  ETHICS  OF  ISLAM. 


Eesignation  (Islam)  to  the  omnipotent  will  of  Allah  is  the 
chief  virtue.  It  is  the  most  powerful  motive  both  in  action  and 
suffering,  and  is  carried  to  the  excess  of  fatalism  and  apathy. 

The  use  of  pork  and  wine  is  strictly  forbidden;  prayer,  fast- 
ing (especially  during  the  whole  month  of  £amadh&n),  and  alms- 
giving are  enjoined.  Prayer  carries  man  half-way  to  God,  fasting 
brings  him  to  the  door  of  God's  palace,  alms  secure  admittance. 
The  total  abstinence  from  strong  drink  by  the  whole  people, 
even  in  countries  where  the  vine  grows  in  abundance,  reveals  a 
remarkable  power  of  self-control,  which  puts  many  Christian 
nations  to  shame.  Mohammedanism  is  a  great  temperance  society. 
Herein  lies  its  greatest  moral  force. 

POLYGAMY. 

But  on  the  other  hand  the  heathen  vice  of  polygamy  and  con- 
cubinage is  perpetuated  and  encouraged  by  the  example  of  the 
prophet.  He  restrained  and  regulated  an  existing  practice,  and 
gave  it  the  sanction  of  religion.  Ordinary  believers  are  restricted 
to  four  wives  (exclusive  of  slaves),  and  generally  have  only  one 

1  So  by  John  of  Damascus  and  the  mediaeval  writers  against  IslAm.  Peter 
of  Gtagny  speaks  of  "hceresea  Saaracenonm  yivc  Ismadifarum."  Comp.  Gass, 
Ghnnadius  und  Befoo,  p.  109. 

f  Lectwresonihe  Eeunion  of  Churches,  p.  7  (transL  by  Qxenham,  1872). 

*  Die  Lehre  der  B&d  wn,  Gott,  Vol.  I.  (1871),  p.  418. 


2  45.  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  BEUGIOK  189 

or  two.  But  Califs  may  fill  their  harems  to  the  extent  of  their 
wealth  and  lust.  Concubinage  with  female  slaves  is  allowed  to 
all  without  limitation.  The  violation  of  captive  women  of  the 
enemy  is  the  legitimate  reward  of  the  conqueror.  The  laws  of 
divorce  and  prohibited  degrees  are  mostly  borrowed  from  the 
Jews,  but  divorce  is  facilitated  and  practiced  to  an  extent  that 
utterly  demoralizes  married  life. 

Polygamy  and  servile  concubinage  destroy  the  dignity  of  wo- 
man, and  the  beauty  and  peace  of  home.  In  all  Mohammedan 
countries  woman  is  ignorant  and  degraded ;  she  is  concealed  from 
public  sight  by  a  veil  (a  sign  of  degradation  as  well  as  -proteo- 
tion);  she  is  not  commanded  to  pray,  and  is  rarely  seen  in  the 
mosques;  it  is  even  an  open  question  whether  she  has  a  soul,  but 
she  is  necessary  even  in  paradise  for  the  gratification  of  man's 
passion.  A  Moslem  would  feel  insulted  by  an  inquiry  after  the 
health  of  his  wife  or  wives.  Polygamy  affords  no  protection 
against  unnatural  vices,  which  are  said  to  prevail  to  a  fearful 
extent  among  Mohammedans,  as  they  did  among  the  ancient 
heathen,1 

In  nothing  is  the  infinite  superiority  of  Christianity  over 
Isl£m  so  manifest  as  in  the  condition  of  woman  and  family  life. 
"Woman  owes  everything  to  tihe  religion  of  the  gospel. 

The  sensual  element  pollutes  even  the  Mohammedan  picture 
of  heaven  from  which  chastity  is  excluded.  The  believers  are 
promised  the  joys  of  a  luxuriant  paradise  amid  blooming  gardens, 
fresh  fountains,  and  beautiful  virgins.  Seventy-two  Houris,  or 
black-eyed  girls  of  blooming  youth  will  be  created  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  meanest  believer  j  a  moment  of  pleasure  will  be  pro- 
longed to  a  thousand  years;  and  his  faculties  will  be  increased 
a  hundred  fold.  Saints  and  martyrs  will  be  admitted  to  the 
spiritual  joys  of  tihe  divine  vision.  But  infidels  and  those  who 
refuse  td  fight  for  their  faith  will  be  cast  into  hell. 

The  Koran  distinguishes  seven  heavens,  and  seven  hells  (for 
o  7  ^ 

*Bom.i.  24sqq.    See  tte  statements  of  Dr.  Jessup  of  Beirut, /.c.,  p.  47. 


190  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

wicked  or  apostate  Mohammedans,  Christians,  Jews,  Sabians, 
Magians,  idolaters,  hypocrites).  Hell  (Jahennem=Gehenna)  is 
beneath  the  lowest  earth  and  seas  of  darkness;  the  bridge  over 
it  is  finer  than  a  hair  and  sharper  than  the  edge  of  a  sword; 
the  pious  pass  over  it  in  a  moment,  the  wicked  fall  from  it  into 
the  abyss. 

SLAVERY. 

Slavery  is  recognized  and  sanctioned  as  a  normal  condition  of 
society,  and  no  hint  is  given  in  the  Koran,  nor  any  effort  made 
by  Mohammedan  rulers  for  its  final  extinction.  It  is  the  twin- 
sister  of  polygamy;  every  harem  is  a  slave-pen  or  a  slave-palace. 
"The  Koran,  as  a  universal  revelation,  would  have  been  a  per- 
petual edict  of  servitude."  Mohammed,  by  ameliorating  the 
condition  of  slaves,  and  enjoining  kind  treatment  npon  the  mas- 
ters, did  not  pave  the  way  for  its  abolition,  but  rather  riveted 
its  fetters.  The  barbarous  slave-trade  is  still  carried  on  in  all 
its  horrors  by  Moslems  among  the  negroes  in  Central  Africa. 

WAR. 

War  against  unbelievers  is  legalized  by  the  Koran.  The 
fighting  men  are  to  be  slain,  the  women  and  children  reduced  to 
slavery.  Jews  and  Christians  are  dealt  with  more  leniently  than 
idolaters;  but  they  too  must  be  thoroughly  humbled  and  forced 
to  pay  tribute. 

§  46.  Mohammedan  Worship. 

"A  simple,  tuipartitioned  room, 
Surmounted  by  an  ample  dome, 
Or,  in  some  lands  that  favored  lie, 
With  centre  open  to  the  sky, 
But  roofed  with  arched  cloisters  round, 
That  mark  the  consecrated  bound, 
And  shade  the  niche  to  Mecca  turned, 
By  which  two  massive  lights  are  burned ; 
With  pulpit  whence  the  sacred  word 


2  46.  MOHAMMEDAN  WOBSHIR  191 

Expounded  on  great  days  i^  heard; 

With  fountains  fresh,  where,  ere  they  pray, 

Men  wash  the  soil  of  earth  away  ; 

With  shining  minaret,  thin  and  high, 

From  whose  fine  trellised  balcony, 

Announcement  of  the  hour  of  prayer 

Is  uttered  to  the  silent  air: 

Such  is  the  Mosque— the  holy  place, 

Where  faithM  men  of  every  race 

Meet  at  their  ease  and  face  to  face." 

(From  MILNES,  "Palm  Leaves.") 

In  worship  the  prominent  feature  of  Islam  is  its  extreme  icon- 
oclasm  and  puritauism.  In  this  respeet,  it  resembles  the  ser- 
vice of  the  synagogue.  The  second  commandment  is  literally 
understood  as  a  prohibition  of  all  representations  of  living  crea- 
tures, whether  in  churches  or  elsewhere.  The  only  ornament 
allowed  is  the  "Arabesque/'  which  is  always  taken  from  inani- 
mate nature.1 

The  ceremonial  is  very  simple.  The  mosques,  like  Catholic 
churches,  are  always  open  and  frequented  by  worshippers,  who 
perform  their  devotions  either  alone  or  in  groups  with  covered 
head  and  bare  feet.  In  entering,  one  must  take  off  the  shoes 
according  to  the  command :  "  Put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet, 
for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground."  Slippers 
or  sandals  of  straw  are  usually  provided  for  strangers,  and  must 
be  paid  for.  There  are  always  half  a  dozen  claimants  for 
"backsheesh" — the  first  and  the  last  word  which  greets  the  tra- 
veller in  Egypt  and  Syria.  Much  importance  is  attached  to 
preaching.* 

Circumcision  is  retained  from  the  Jews,  although  it  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  Koran.  Friday  is  substituted  for  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  as  the  sacred  day  (perhaps  because  it  was  previously  a 

1  The  lions  in  the  court  of  the  Alhambra  form  an  exception. 

*  For  an  interesting  description  of  a  sermon  from  the  pulpit  of  Mecca,  see 
Burton's  Pilgrimage,  H.  314;  HL  117,  quoted  by  Stanley,  p.  379.  Burton 
says,  he  had  never  and  nowhere  seen  so  solemn,  so  impressive  a  religious  spec- 
tacle. Perhaps  he  has  not  heard  many  Christian  sermons. 


192  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

day  for  religious  assemblage).    It  is  called  the  prince  of  days, 
the  most  excellent  day  on  which  man  was  created,  and  on  which 
the  last  judgment  will  take  place;  but  the  observance  is  less 
strict  than  that  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    On  solemn  occasions 
sacrifice,  mostly  in  the  nature  of  a  thank-offering,  is  offered  and 
combined  with  an  act  of  benevolence  to  the  poor.    But  there  is 
no  room  in  IslAm  for  the  idea  of  atonement;  God  forgives 
sins  directly  and  arbitrarily,  without  a  satisfaction  of  justice. 
Hence  there  is  no  priesthood  in  the  sense  of  a  hereditary  or 
perpetual  caste,  offering  sacrifices  and  mediating  between  God 
and  the  people.1    Yet  there  are  Mufties  and  Dervishes,  who 
are  as  powerful  as  any  class  of  priests  and  monks.    The  Mus- 
sulmans have  their  saints,  and  pray  at  their  white  tombs.    In 
this  respect,  they  approach  the  Greeks  and  Roman  Catholics; 
yet  they  abhor  the  worship  of  saints  as  idolatry.    They  also 
make  much  account  of  religious  processions  and  pilgrimages. 
Their  chief  place  of  pilgrimage  is  Mecca.    Many  thousands  of 
Moslems  from  Egypt  and  all  parts  of  Turkey  pass  annually 
through  the  Arabian  desert  to  worship  at  the  holy  Kaaba,  and 
are  received  in  triumph  on  their  return.    The  supposed  tomb 
of  Moses,  also,  which  is  transferred  to  the  Western  shore  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  is  visited  by  the  Moslems  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
neighboring  country  in  the  month  of  April. 

Prayer  with  prostrations  is  reduced  to  a  mechanical  act  which 
is  performed  with  the  regularity  of  clock  work.  Washing  of 
hands  is  enjoined  before  prayer,  but  in  the  desert,  sand  is  per- 
mitted as  a  substitute  for  water.  There  are  five  stated  seasons 
for  prayer :  at  day-break,  near  noon,  in  the  afternoon,  a  little 
after  sunset  (to  avoid  the  appearance  of  sun-worship),  and  at 
night-fall,  besides  two  night  prayers  for  extra  devotion*  The 
mueddin  or  muezzin  (crier)  announces  the  time  of  devotion  from 
the  minaret  of  the  mosque  by  chanting  the  "Adan**  or  call  to 
prayer,  in  these  words : 

1  Gibbon's  statement  that  "the  Mo^|^1Timp^ftr|  religion  lias  no  priest  and  no 
sacrifice,"  is  substantially  correct* 


§  46.  MOHAMMEDAN  WOBSHIIP.  193 

"  God  is  great!*'  (four  times).  "I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no  god 
but  God  "  (twice).  "I  bear  witness  that  Mohammed  is  the  Apostle  of 
God"  (twice).  "Come  hither  to  prayers!11  (twice).  "Come  hither  to 
salvation!"  (twice).  "God  is  great!  There  is  no  other  God!"  And 
in  the  early  morning  the  crier  adds :  "  Prayer  is  better  than  sleep  !'* 

A  devout  Mussulman  is  never  ashamed  to  perform  his  devo- 
tion in  public,  whether  in  the  mosque,  or  in  the  street,  or  on 
board  the  ship.  Regardless  of  the  surroundings,  feeling  alone 
with  God  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd,  his  face  turned  to  Mecca, 
his  hands  now  raised  to  heaven,  then  laid  on  the  lap,  his  fore- 
head touching  the  ground,  he  goes  through  his  genuflexions  and 
prostrations,  and  repeats  the  first  Sura  of  the  Koran  and  the 
ninety-nine  beautiful  names  of  Allah,  which  form  his  rosary.1 
The  mosques  are  as  well  filled  with  men,  as  many  Christian 
lurches  are  with  women.  Isl£m  is  a  religion  for  men ;  women 
are  of  no  account;  the  education  and  elevation  of  the  female 
sex  would  destroy  the  system. 

With  all  its  simplicity  and  gravity,  the  Mohammedan  wor- 
ship has  also  its  frantic  excitement  of  the  Dervishes.  On  the 
celebration  of  the  birthday  of  their  prophet  and  other  festivals, 
they  work  themselves,  by  the  constant  repetition  of  "Allah, 
Allah/'  into  a  state  of  unconscious  ecstacy,  "  in  which  they  plant 
swords  in  their  breasts,  tear  live  serpents  with  their  teeth,  eat 
bottles  of  glass,  and  finally  lie  prostrate  on  the  ground  for  the 
dhief  of  their  order  to  ride  on  horseback  over  their  bodies."  * 

1  They  are  given  in  Arabic  and  English  by  Palmer,  L  c.  L,  Intr.,  p.  Ixvii  eq. 
The  following  are  the  first  ten : 

1.  ar-Ea'hman,  the  Merciful. 

2.  ar-Ra'htm,  the  Compassionate. 

3.  al-Malik,  the  Eider. 

4.  al-Quaddte,  the  Holy. 

5.  as-Salam,  Peace. 

6.  al-Mu'min,  the  Faithful. 

7.  al-MuhAimtm,  the  Protector. 

8.  al-Haziz,  the  Mighty. 

9.  al-Gabbar,  the  Eepairer. 

10.  al-Mutakabbir,  the  Great. 

*  Description  of  Dean  Stanley  from  his  own  observation  in  Cairo,  Z.c^  p.  385. 


194  FOUKTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

I  will  add  a  brief  description  of  the  ascetic  exercises  of  the 
" Dancing"  and  "Howling"  Dervishes  which  I  witnessed  in 
their  convents  at  Constantinople  and  Cairo  in  1877. 

The  Dancing  or  Turning  Dervishes  in  Pera,  thirteen  in  num- 
ber, some  looking  ignorant  and  stupid,  others  devout  and  in- 
tensely fanatical,  went  first  through  prayers  and  prostrations, 
then  threw  off  their  outer  garments,  and  in  white  flowing  gowns, 
with  high  hats  of  stiff  woolen  stuff,  they  began  to  dance  to  the 
sound  of  strange  music,  whirling  gracefully  and  skilfully  on  their 
toes,  ring  within  ring,  without  touching  each  other  or  moving  out 
of  their  circle,  performing,  in  four  different  acts,  from  forty  to 
fifty  turnings  in  one  minute,  their  arms  stretched  out  or  raised  to 
heaven,  their  eyes  half  shut,  their  mind  apparently  lost  in  a  sort 
of  Nirwana  or  pantheistic  absorption  in  Allah.  A  few  hours 
afterward  I  witnessed  the  rare  spectacle  of  one  of  these  very 
Dervishes  reeling  to  and  fro  in  a  state  of  intoxication  on  the 
street  and  the  lower  bridge  of  the  Golden  Horn. 

The  Howling  Dervishes  in  Scutari  present  a  still  more  extra- 
ordinary sight,  and  a  higher  degree  of  ascetic  exertion,  but  des- 
titute of  all  grace  and  beauty.  The  performance  took  place  in  a 
small,  plain,  square  room,  and  lasted  nearly  two  hours.  As  the 
monks  came  in,  they  kissed  the  hand  of  their  leader  and  repeated 
with  him  long  prayers  from  the  Koran.  One  recited  with  melo- 
dious voice  an  Arabic  song  in  praise  of  Mohammed.  Then, 
standing  in  a  row,  bowing,  and  raising  their  heads,  they  con- 
tinued to  howl  the  fundamental  dogma  of  Mohammedanism,  La 
ilaha  iff  Afl!ah,  for  nearly  an  hour.  Some  were  utterly  exhausted 
and  wet  with  perspiration.  The  exercises  I  saw  in  Cairo  were 
less  protracted,  but  more  dramatic,  as  the  Dervishes  had  long 
hair  and  stood  in  a  circle,  swinging  their  bodies  backward  and 
forward  in  constant  succession,  and  nearly  touching  the  ground 
with  their  flowing  hair.  In  astounding  feats  of  asceticism  the 
Moslems  are  fully  equal  to  the  ancient  Christian  anchorites  and 
the  fakirs  of  India. 


J  47.  CHRISTIAN  POLEMICS  AGAINST  MOHAMMEDANISM.  195 

§  47.  Christian  Polemics  against  Mohaminedanism.    Note  on 

Mormonism. 

See  the  modern  Lit.  in  |  38,  p.  143. 

For  a  list  of  earlier  works  against  Mohammedanism,  see  J.  ALB.  FABBI- 
dus:  Delectus  argumentorum  et  syllabus  scriptorum,  gui  vertiatem 
Christ,  adv.  Atheos,  .  .  .  Judceos  et  Muhammedanos  .  .  .  asseruerunt. 
Hamb.,  1725,  pp.  119  sqq.,  735  sqq.  J.  G.  WALCH  :  JBibliotheea  The- 
olog.  Sekcta  (Jense,  1757),  Tom.  L  611  sqq.  Appendix  to  PBI- 
DEATJX'S  Life  of  Mahomet. 

THEOD.  BIBLIANDEE,  edited  at  Basle,  in  1543,  and  again  in  1550,  with 
the  Latin  version  of  the  Koran,  a  collection  of  the  more  important 
works  against  Mohammed  under  the  title:  Machumetis  Saracenorum 
prineipis  ejusque  successorum  wtce,  doctrines,  OG  ipse  Alcoran.,  I  vol.  fol. 

EICHARDTTS  (about  1300) :  Cbnfutatio  Alcorani,  first  pnbl.  in  Paris,  1511. 

JOH.  DE  TUBRECREMATA:  Troctatus  contra  prindpcdes  errores  perfidi 
Mahometis  et  Turwrum.  Eom.,  1606. 

LUD.  MABACCnrs  (MABACCI)  :  Prodromus  adrefukdwnemAltwani;  in  qtto, 
per  IV.  pr&cipuas  verce  religionis  notas,  mahumetanoR  sectce  falsitas 
ostenditur,  Christiana  religionis  ventas  comprobatur.  Eom.  (typis 
Congreg.  de  Propaganda  Fide),  1691.  4  vols.,  small  Oct.;  also  Pref. 
to  his  Alcorani  textus  universus,  Petav.,  1698,  2  vols.  fol. 

HADB.  EELAITD:  De  Eeligione  Mohammedica.  Utrecht,  1705;  2nd  ed. 
1717;  French  transl.,  Hague,  1721. 

"W.  GASS:  Gennadius  und  Pktho.  Breslau,  1844,  Part  L,  pp.  106-181. 
(Die  Bestreitung  des  Islam  im  Mittelalter.) 

The  argument  of  Mohammedanism  against  other  religions  was 
the  sword.  Christian  Europe  replied  with  the  sword  in  the 
crusades,  but  failed.  Greek  and  Latin  divines  refuted  the  false 
prophet  with  superior  learning,  but  without  rising  to  a  higher 
providential  view,  and  without  any  perceptible  effect*  Christian 
polemics  against  Mohammed  and  the  Koran  began  in  the  eighth 
century,  and  continued  with  interruptions  to  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth. 

John  of  Damascus,  who  lived  among  the  Saracens  (about 
A.D.  750),  headed  the  line  of  champions  of  the  cross  against  the 
crescent.  He  was  followed,  in  the  Greek  Church,  by  Theodor 
of  Abukara,  who  debated  a  good  deal  with  Mohammedans  in 
Mesopotamia,  by  Samonas,  bishop  of  Gaza,  Bartholomew  of 
Edessa,  John  Xantakuzenus  (or  rather  a  monk  Meletius,  for- 


196  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

merly  a  Mohammedan,  who  justified  his  conversion,  with  the  aid 
of  the  smperor,  in  four  apologies  and  four  orations),  Euthymius 
Zigabenus,  Gennadius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople^  Prominent 
in  the  Latin  church  were  Peter,  Abbot  of  Clugny  (twelfth 
century),  Thomas  Aquinas,  Alanus  ab  Insulis,  Eaimundus  Lul- 
lus,  Nicolaus  of  Cusa,  Eicold  or  Eichard  (a  Dominican  monk 
who  lived  long  in  the  East),  Savonarola,  Job.  de  Turrecremata. 
The  mediaeval  writers,  both  Greek  and  Latin,  represent  Mo- 
hammed as  an  impostor  and  arch-heretic,  who  wove  his  false 
religion  chiefly  from  Jewish  (Talmudic)  fables  and  Christian 
heresies.  They  find  him  foretold  in  the  Little  Horn  of  Daniel, 
and  the  False  Prophet  of  the  Apocalypse.  They  bring  him  in 
connection  with  a  Nestorian  monk,  Sergius,  or  according  to 
others,  with  the  Jacobite  Bahira,  who  instructed  Mohammed, 
and  might  have  converted  him  to  the  Christian  religion,  if  ma- 
lignant Jews  had  not  interposed  with  their  slanders.  Thus  he 
became  the  shrewd  and  selfish  prophet  of  a  pseudo-gospel, 
which  is  a  mixture  of  apostate  Judaism  and  apostate  Christianity 
with  a  considerable  remnant  of  his  native  Arabian  heathenism. 
Dante  places  him,  disgustingly  torn  and  mutilated,  among  the 
chief  heretics  and  schismatics  in  the  ninth  gulf  of  Hell, 

"  Where  is  paid  the  fee 
By  those  who  sowing  discord  win  their  burden."  * 

1  Inferno,  Canto  XXVHL  22  sqq.  (Longfellow's  translation) : 
"A  cask  by  losing  centre-piece  or  cant 

Was  never  shattered  so,  as  I  saw  one 

Kent  from  the  chin  to  where  one  breaketh  wind. 
Between  his  legs  were  hanging  down  his  entrails; 

TTifl  heart  was  visible,  and  the  ^for^l  sack 

That  maketh  excrement  of  what  is  eaten. 
While  I  was  all  absorbed  in  seeing  Mm^ 

He  looked  at  me,  and  opened  with  his  hands 

His  bosom,  saying:  'See  now  how  I  rend  me; 
How  mutilated,  see,  is  Mahomet; 

In  front  of  me  doth  Ali  weeping  go, 

deft  in  the  face  from  forelock  unto  chin; 
And  all  the  others  whom  thou  here  beholdest, 

Sowers  of  scandal  and  of  schism  have  been 

While  living,  and  therefore  are  thus  cleft  asunder."* 


j  47.  CHRISTIAN  POLEMICS  AGAINST  MOHAMMEDANISM.  197 

This  mediaeval  view  was  based  in  part  upon  an  entire  igno- 
rance or  perversion  of  facts.  It  was  then  believed  that  Moham- 
medans were  pagans  and  idolaters,  and  cursed  the  name  of 
Christ,  while  it  is  now  known,  that  they  abhor  idolatry,  and 
esteem  Christ  as  the  highest  prophet  next  to  Mohammed. 

The  Reformers  and  older  Protestant  divines  took  substantially 
the  same  view,  and  condemn  the  Koran  and  its  author  without 
qualification.  We  must  remember  that  down  to  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Turks  were  the  most  dangerous 
enemies  of  the  peace  of  Europe.  Luther  published,  at  Witten- 
berg, 1540,  a  German  translation  of  Richard's  Chnfutatio  Aleo- 
raniy  with  racy  notes,  to  show  "what  a  shameful,  lying,  abomi- 
able  book  the  Alcoran  is."  He  calls  Mohammed  "a  devil  and 
the  first-born  child  of  Satan."  He  goes  into  the  question,  whe- 
ther the  Pope  or  Mohammed  be  worse,  and  comes  to  the  .con- 
clusion, that  after  all  the  Pope  is  worse,  and  the  real  Anti-Christ 
(Endechmst).  "  Wohhn"  he  winds  up  his  epilogue,  "God  grant 
us  his  grace  and  punish  both  the  Pope  and  Mohammed,  together 
with  their  devils.  I  have  done  my  part  as  a  true  prophet  and 
teacher.  Those  who  won't  listen  may  leave  it  alone."  Even  the 
mild  and  scholarly  Melanchthon  identifies  Mohammed  with  the 
Little  Horn  of  Daniel,  or  rather  with  the  Gog  and  Magog  of 
the  Apocalypse,  and  charges  his  sect  with  being  a  compound  of 
"blasphemy,  robbery,  and  sensuality."  It  is  not  very  strange 
that  in  the  heat  of  that  polemical  age  the  Romanists  charged  the 
Lutherans,  and  the  Lutherans  the  Calvinists,  and  both  in  turn 
the  Romanists,  with  holding  Mohammedan  heresies.1 

1  Maracci,  Vivaldus,  and  other  Eoman  "writers  point  out  thirteen  or  more 
heresies  in  which  Mohammedanism  and  Lutheranism  agree,  such  as  iconoclasm, 
the  rejection  of  the  worship  of  saints,  polygamy  (in  the  case  of  Philip  of  Hesse), 
etc.  A  fanatical  Lutheran  wrote  a  hook  to  prove  that  "  the  damned  Calvinists 
hold  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  theses  (the  apocalyptic  number)  in  common 
with  the  Turks!"  The  Oalvinist  Belaud,  on  the  other  hand,  finds  analogies  to 
Romish  errors  in  the  Mohammedan  prayers  for 'the  dead,  visiting  the  graves 
of  prophets,  pilgrimages  to  Mecca,  intercession  of  angels,  fixed  fasts,  meritorious 
almsgiving,  etc. 


198  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  P.  590-104*. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  this  view  was  gradually  corrected. 
The  learned  Dean  Prideaux  still  represented  Mohammed  as 
a  vulgar  impostor,  but  at  the  same  time  as  a  scourge  of  God 
in  just  punishment  of  the  sins  of  the  Oriental  churches  who 
turned  our  holy  religion  "into  a  firebrand  of  hell  for  contention, 
strife  and  violence/7  He  undertook  his  "  Life  of  Mahomet"  as 
a  part  of  a  "  History  of  the  Eastern  Church,"  though  he  did  not 
carry  out  his  design. 

Voltaire  and  other  Deists  likewise  still  viewed  Mohammed  as 
an  impostor,  but  from  a  disposition  to  trace  all  religion  to  priest- 
craft and  deception.  Spanheim,  Sale,  and  Gagnier  began  to 
take  a  broader  and  more  favorable  view.  Gibbon  gives  a  calm 
historical  narrative;  and  in  summing  up  his  judgment,  he  hesi- 
tates whether  "the  title  of  enthusiast  or  impostor  more  properly 
belongs  to  that  extraordinary  man.  .  .  .  From  enthusiasm  to 
imposture  the  step  is  perilous  and  slippery;  the  daemon  of  Soc- 
rates affords  a  memorable  instance  how  a  wise  man  may  deceive 
himself,  how  a  good  man  may  deceive  others,  how  the  conscience 
may  slumber  in  a  mixed  and  middle  state  between  self-illusion 
and  voluntary  fraud." 

Dean  Milman  suspends  his  judgment,  saying :  "  To  the  ques- 
tion whether  Mohammed  was  hero,  sage,  impostor,  or  fanatic, 
or  blended,  and  blended  in  what  proportions,  these  conflicting 
elements  in  his  character?  the  best  reply  is  the  reverential  phrase 
oflsl&m:  < God  knows/"1 

Goethe  and  Carlyle  swung  from  the  orthodox  abuse  to  the 
opposite  extreme  of  a  pantheistic  hero-worshiping  over-estimate 
of  Mohammed  and  the  Koran  by  extending  the  sphere  of  reve- 
lation and  inspiration,  and  obliterating  the  line  which  separates 
Christianity  from  all  other  religions.  Stanley,  R.  Bosworth 
Smith,  Emanuel  Deutsch,  and  others  follow  more  or  less  in  the 
track  of  this  broad  and  charitable  liberalism.  Many  errors  and 
prejudices  have  been  dispelled,  and  the  favorable  traits  of  Isl&m 
and  its  followers,  their  habits  of  devotion,  temperance,  and 

1  Lot.  Christianity,  IL  120. 


2  47.  CHRISTIAN  POLEMICS  AGAINST  MOHAMMEDANISM.  199 

resignation,  were  held  up  to  the  shame  and  admiration  of  the 
Christian  world.  Mohammed  himself,  it  is  now  generally  con- 
ceded, began  as  an  honest  reformer,  suffered  much  persecution 
for  his  faith,  effectually  destroyed  idolatry,  was  free  from  sordid 
motives,  lived  in  strict  monogamy  during  twenty-four  years  of 
his  youth  and  manhood,  and  in  great  simplicity  to  his  death. 
The  polygamy  which  disfigured  the  last  twelve  years  of  his  life 
was  more  moderate  than  that  of  many  other  Oriental  despots, 
Califs  and  Sultans,  and  prompted  in  part  by  motives  of  benevo- 
lence towards  the  widows  of  his  followers,  who  had  suffered  in 
the  service  of  his  religion.1 

But  the  enthusiasm  kindled  by  Carlyle  for  the  prophet  of 
Mecca  has  been  considerably  checked  by  fuller  information  from 
the  original  sources  as  brought  out  in  the  learned  biographies 
of  Weil,  Noldeke,  Sprenger  and  Muir.  They  furnish  the  au- 
thentic material  for  a  calm,  discriminating  and  impartial  judg- 
ment, which,  however,  is  modified  more  or  less  by  the  religious 
standpoint  and  sympathies  of  the  historian.  Sprenger  represents 
Mohammed  as  the  child  of  his  age,  and  mixes  praise  and  censure, 
without  aiming  at  a  psychological  analysis  or  philosophical  view. 
Sir  William  Muir  concedes  his  original  honesty  and  zeal  as  a 
reformer  and  warner,  but  assumes  a  gradual  deterioration  to  the 
judicial  blindness  of  a  self-deceived  heart,  and  even  a  kind  of 
Satanic  inspiration  in  his  later  revelations.  "  We  may  readily 
admit,"  he  says,  "  that  at  the  first  Mahomet  did  believe,  or  per- 
suaded himself  to  believe,  that  his  revelations  were  dictated  by 
a  divine  agency.  In  the  Meccan  period  of  his  life,  there  cer- 
tainly can  be  traced  no  personal  ends  or  unworthy  motives  to 

1  The  Mohammedan  apologist,  Syed  Ameer  All  (The  Life  and  Teachings  of 
Mohammed,  London,  1873,  pp.  228  sqq.)j  makes  much  account  of  this  fact,  and 
entirely  justifies  Mohammed's  polygamy.  But  the  motive  of  benevolence  and 
generosity  can  certainly  not  be  shown  in  the  marriage  of  Ayesha  (the  virgin- 
daughter  of  Abu-Bakr),  nor  of  Zeynab  (the  lawful  wife  of  his  freedman  Zeyd), 
nor  of  Safiya  (the  Jewess).  AH  himself  must  admit  that  "some  of  Moham- 
med's marriages  may  possibly  have  arisen  from  a  desire  for  male  offspring." 
The  motive  of  sensuality  he  entirely  ignores. 


200  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

belie  this  conclusion.  The  Prophet  was  there,  what  he  professed 
to  be,  'a  simple  Preacher  and  a  Warner ;'  he  was  the  despised 
and  rejected  teacher  of  a  gainsaying  people ;  and  he  had  appa- 
rently no  ulterior  object  but  their  reformation.  .  „  .  But  the 
scene  altogether  changes  at  Medina.  There  the  acquisition  of 
temporal  power,  aggrandizement,  and  self-glorification  mingled 
with  the  grand  object  of  the  Prophet's  previous  life;  and  they 
were  sought  after  and  attained  by  precisely  the  same  instrument- 
ality. Messages  from  heaven  were  freely  brought  forward  to 
justify  his  political  conduct,  equally  with  his  religious  precepts. 
Battles  were  fought,  wholesale  executions  inflicted,  and  territo- 
ries annexed,  under  pretext  of  the  Almighty's  sanction.  Nay, 
even  baser  actions  were  not  only  excused,  but  encouraged,  by 
the  pretended  divine  approval  or  command.  .  . , .  The  student 
of  history  will  trace  for  himself  how  the  pure  and  lofty  aspira- 
tions of  Mahomet  were  first  tinged,  and  then  gradually  debased 
by  a  half  unconscious  self-deception,  and  how  in  this  process 
truth  merged  into  falsehood,  sincerity  into  guile, — these  opposite 
principles  often  co-existing  even  as  active  agencies  in  his  conduct. 
The  reader  will  observe  that  simultaneously  with  the  anxious 
desire  to  extinguish  idolatry  and  to  promote  religion  and  virtue 
in  the  world,  there  was  nurtured  by  the  Prophet  in  his  own 
heart  a  licentious  self-indulgence ;  till  in  the  end,  assuming  to 
be  the  favorite  of  Heaven,  he  justified  himself  by  'revelations' 
from  God  in  the  most  flagrant  breaches  of  morality.  He  will 
remark  that  while  Mahomet  cherished  a  kind  and  tender  dispo- 
sition, c  weeping  with  them  that  wept/  and  binding  to  his  person 
the  hearts  of  his  followers  by  the  ready  and  self-denying  offices 
of  love  and  friendship,  he  could  yet  take  pleasure  in  cruel  and 
perfidious  assassination,  could  gloat  over  the  massacre  of  entire 
tribes,  and  savagely  consign  the  innocent  babe  to  the  fires  of 
hell.  Inconsistencies  such  as  these  continually  present  them- 
selves from  the  period  of  Mahomet's  arrival  at  Medina;  and  it 
is  by  the  study  of  these  inconsistencies  that  his  character  must 
be  rightly  comprehended.  The  key  to  many  difficulties  of  this 


§  47.  CHRISTIAN  POLEMICS  AGAINST  MOHAMMEDANISM.  201 

description  may  be  found,  I  believe,  in  the  chapter  <on  the  be- 
lief of  Mahomet  in  his  own  inspiration/  When  once  he  had 
dared  to  forge  the  name  of  the  Most  High  God  as  the  seal  and 
authority  of  his  own  words  and  actions,  the  germ  was  laid  from 
which  the  errors  of  his  after  life  freely  and  fatally  developed 
themselves."1 

Note  on  Mormonism. 
SOURCES. 

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON.  First  printed  at  Palmyra,  K  Y.,  1830.  Written 
by  the  Prophet  Mormon,  three  hundred  years  after  Christ,  upon  plates 
of  gold  in  the  "  Reformed  Egyptian  "  ( ? )  language,  and  translated  by 
the  Prophet  Joseph,  Smith,  Jun.,  with  the  aid  of  ITrim  and  Thummim, 
into  English.  As  large  as  the  Old  Testament.  A  tedious  historical 
romance  on  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  American  Continent, 
whose  ancestors  emigrated  from  Jerusalem  B.  C.  600,  and  whose 
degenerate  descendants  are  the  red  Indians.  Said  to  have  been 
written  as  a  book  of  fiction  by  a  Presbyterian  minister,  Samuel 
Spalding. 

THE  DOCTRINES  AND  COVENANTS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 
OF  THE  LATTER  DAY  SAINTS.  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah  Territory. 
Contains  the  special  revelations  given  to  Joseph  Smith  and  Brigham 
Young  at  different  times.  Written  m  similar  style  and  equally  insipid 
as  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

A  CATECHISM  FOR  CHILDREN  BY  ELDER  JOHN  JAQUES.  Salt  Lake 
City.  25th  thousand,  1877. 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  on  Oriental  Mohammedanism  without 
some  remarks  on  the  abnormal  American  phenomenon  of  Mormonism, 
which  arose  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  presents  an  instructive  analogy 
to  the  former.  JOSEPH  SMITH  (born  at  Sharon,  VI,  1805 ;  shot  dead  at 
Kauvoo,  in  Illinois,  1844),  the  first  founder,  or  rather  BRIGHAM  YOUNG 
(d.  1877),  the  organizer  of  the  sect,  may  be  called  the  American  Moham- 
med, although  far  beneath  the  prophet  of  Arabia  in  genius  and  power. 

The  points  of  resemblance  are  numerous  and  striking:  the  claim  to  a 
supernatural  revelation  mediated  by  an  angel ;  the  abrogation  of  previous 
revelations  by  later  and  more  convenient  ones ;  the  embodiment  of  the 
revelations  in  an  inspired  book ;  the  eclectic  character  of  the  system, 
•which  is  compounded  of  Jewish,  heathenish,  and  all  sorts  of  sectarian 
Christian  elements ;  the  intense  fanaticism  and  heroic  endurance  of  the 

1  Life  of  Mah.,  IV.  317,  322. 


202  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

early  Mormons  amidst  violent  abuse  and  persecution  from  state  to  state, 
till  they  found  a  refdge  in  the  desert  of  Utah  Territory,  which  they  turned 
into  a  garden ;  the  missionary  zeal  in  sending  apostles  to  distant  lands 
and  importing  proselytes  to  their  Eldorado  of  saints  from  the  ignorant 
population  of  England,  Wales,  Norway,  Germany,  and  Switzerland ;  the 
union  of  religion  with  civil  government,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  Ame- 
rican separation  of  church  and  state;  the  institution  of  polygamy  in  defi- 
ance of  the  social  order  of  Christian  civilization.  In  sensuality  and  ava- 
rice Brigham  Young  surpassed  Mohammed ;  for  he  left  at  his  death  in 
Salt  Lake  City  seventeen  wives,  sixteen  sons,  and  twenty-eight  daughters 
(having  had  in  all  fifty-six  or  more  children),  and  property  estimated  at 
two  millions  of  dollars-1 

The  government  of  the  United  States  cannot  touch  the  Mormon  reli- 
gion ;  but  it  can  regulate  the  social  institutions  connected  therewith,  as 
long  as  Utah  is  a  Territory  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  Congress. 
Polygamy  has  been  prohibited  by  law  in  the  Territories  under  its  con- 
trol, and  President  Hayes  has  given  warning  to  foreign  governments  (in 
1879)  that  Mormon  converts  emigrating  to  the  United  States  run  the 
risk  of  punishment  for  violating  the  laws  of  the  land.  President  Garfield 
(in  his  inaugural  address,  March  4, 1881)  took  the  same  decided  ground 
on  the  Mormon  question,  saying:  "The  Mormon  church  not  only  offends 
the  moral  sense  of  mankind  by  sanctioning  polygamy,  but  prevents  the 
administration  of  justice  through  the  ordinary  instrumentalities  of  law. 
In  my  judgment  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress,  while  respecting  to  the  utter- 
most the  conscientious  convictions  and  religious  scruples  of  every  citizen, 
to  prohibit  within  its  jurisdiction  all  criminal  practices,  especially  of  that 
class  which  destroy  the  family  relations  and  endanger  social  order.  Nor 
can  any  ecclesiastical  organization  be  safely  permitted  to  usurp  in  the 
smallest  degree  the  functions  and  powers  of  the  National  Government." 

His  successor,  President  Arthur,  in  his  last  message  to  Congress,  Dec. 
1884,  again  recommends  that  Congress  "  assume  absolute  political  control 
of  the  Territory  of  Utah,"  and  says :  "  I  still  believe  that  if  that  abomin- 
able practice  [polygamy]  can  be  suppressed  by  law  it  can  only  be  by  the 
most  radical  legislation  consistent  with  the  restraints  of  the  Constitu- 
tion/7 The  secular  and  religious  pre.ss  of  America,  with  few  exceptions, 
supports  these  sentiments  of  the  chief  magistrate. 

Since  the  annexation  of  Utah  to  the  United  States,  after  the  Mexican 
war,  "  Gentiles,"  as  the  Christians  are  called,  have  entered  the  Mormon 
settlement,  and  half  a  dozen  churches  of  different  denominations  have 
been  organized  in  Salt  Lake  City.  But  the  "Latter  Day  Saints"  are 
vastly  in  the  majority,  and  are  spreading  in  the  adjoining  Territories. 
Time  will  show  whether  the  Mormon  problem  can  be  solved  without 
resort  to  arms,  or  a  new  emigration  of  the  Mormons. 

1  As  stated  in  the  NewYork  Tribune  for  Sept.  3, 1877. 


\  48.  GENERAL  LITERATURE  ON  THE  PAPACY.       203 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

THE  PAPAL  HIEEABCHY  AND  THE  HOLY  BOMAN  EMPIRE. 
§  48.  General  Literature  on  the  Papaey. 


*Bullarium  Magnum  Romanum  a  Leone  M.  usque  ad  Benedietum 

Luxemb.,  1727-1758.  19  vols.,  foL  Another  ed.,  of  superior  typog- 
raphy,  under  the  title  :  Buttarum  .  .  .  Romanorum  Pontificum  am- 
plissima  ColZectio,  opera  et  studio  G.  Cocquelines,  Bom.,  1738-1758,  14 
Tomi  in  28  Partes  fol.  ;  new  ed.,  1847-72,  24  vols.  Bulfarii  Romani 
continuatio^  ed.  A.  A.  Barberi,  from  Clement  XIII.  to  Gregory  XVI., 
Bom.,  1835-1857,  18  vols. 

*Mbnumenta  Germanics  ffistorica  inde  db  anno  Christi  quingentesimo  usque 
ad  annum  millesimum  et  quingenfesimum;  ed.  by  G.  Hi  Pertz  (royal 
librarian  at  Berlin,  d.  1876),  continued  by  G.  Waitz.  Hannoverse, 
1826-1879,  24  vols.  fol.  A  storehouse  for  the  authentic  history  of 
the  German  empire. 

*ANASTAsnis  (librarian  and  abbot  in  Borne  about  870)  :  Liber  PontificaM* 
(or,  De  Vitis  Roman.  Pontificum).  The  oldest  collection  of  biogra- 
phies of  popes  down  to  Stephen  VI.,  A.  D.  885,  but  not  all  by  Anas- 
tasius.  This  book,  together  with  later  collections,  is  inserted  in 
the  third  volume  of  MURATORI,  Rerum  Ital.  Seriptores  (Mediol.,  1723- 
'51,  in  25  vols.  fol.)  ;  also  in  Migne,  Patrol  L.  Tom.  cxxvii.  (1853). 

ARCHIBALD  BOWER  (b.  1686  at  Dundee,  Scotland,  d.  1766)  :  The  History 
of  the  Popes,  from  the  foundation  of  the  See  of  Borne  to  the  present  time. 
3rd  ed.  Lond.,  1750-'66.  7  vols-,  4to-  German  transl.  by  Bambach, 
1770.  Bower  changed  twice  from  Protestantism  to  Bomanism,  and 
back  again,  and  wrote  in  bitter  hostility  to  the  papacy,  but  gives 
very  ample  material.  Bp.  Douglas  of  Salesbury  wrote  again&t  him. 

CHR.  F.  WALCH:  Entwurf  einer  vollstandigen  JERstorie  der  romisehen 
Pdpste.  Gottingen,  2d  ed  ,  1758. 

G.J.PLANCK:  Geschichte  des  Papstthums.    Hanover,  1805.     3  vols. 

L.  T.  SPITTLER:  Oeschiehte  des  Papstthums;  with  Notes  by  J.  Gurlitt, 
Hamb.,  1802,  new  ed.  by  H.  E.  G.  Paulus.  Heidelberg,  1826. 

J.  E.  EIDDLE  :  The  History  of  the  Papacy  to  the  Period  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. London,  1856.  2  vols. 

F.  A.  GPRORER:  Geschichte  der  Karolinger.  (Freiburg,  1848.  2  vols.); 
Allgemeine  Ewchengeschichte  (Stuttgart,  1841-J46,  4  vols.);  Oregor 
VII.  und  sein  Zettalter  (Schaffhausen,  1859-'64,  8  vols.).  Gfrorer 
began  as  a  rationalist,  but  joined  the  Roman  church,  1853,  and  died 
in  1861. 


FOUilTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

*PHIL.  JAFFE :  Eegesta  Pontificum  Eoman.  ad  annum  1198.   BeroL,  18f»l ; 

revised  ed.  by  WATTENBACH,  etc.    Lips.  1881  sqq.    Continued  by 

POTTHAST  from  1198-1304,  and  supplemented  by  HARTTUNG  (see 

below).    Important  for  the  chronology  and  acts  of  the  popes. 
J.  A.  WYJLIE  :  The  Papacy.    Lond.,  1852. 
^LEOPOLD  RANKE  :  Die  romischen  Papste,  ihre  Kirohe  und  ihr  Sfaat  im 

16  und  17ten  Jahrhundert.   4  ed.,  Berlin,  1857.    3  vols.    Two  English 

translations,  one  by  Sarah  Austin  (Lond.,  1840),  one  by  E.  Foster 

(Lond.,  1847).    Comp.  the  famous  review  ofMacaulay  in  the  Edinb. 

Review. 
DOLJLINGER  (R.  C.) :  Die  Papstfabeln  des  Mittelalters.    Munchen,  1863. 

English  translation  by  A.  Plummer,  and  ed.  with  notes  by  If.  J?. 

Smith.    New  York,  1872. 
*W.  GIESEBRECHT  :  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  Kaiserzeit.     Braunschweig, 

1855.     3rd  ed.,  1863  sqq.,  5  vols.    A  political  history  of  the  German 

empire,  but  with  constant  reference  to  the  papacy  in  its  close  contact 

with  it. 
*THOMAS  GREENWOOD  :  Cathedra,  Petri.    A  Political  History  of  the  great 

Latin  Patriarchate.    London,  1856-'72,  6  vols. 
C.  DE  CHERRIER:  Histoire  de  la  lutte  des  popes  et  des  empereurs  de  la 

maison  de  swabe,  de  ces  causes  et  des  ses  effets.    Paris,  1858.     3  vols. 
*RuD.  BAXMANN  :  Die  PolWs  der  Pdpste  von  Gregor  I.  bis  Gregor  VII. 

Elberfeld,  1868,  J69.    2  vols. 
*F.  GBEGOKOVIUS  :  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom  im  Mittelalter,  vom  5.  bis 

zum  16  Jahrh.    8  vols.     Stuttgart,  1859-1873.    2  ed.,  1869  ff. 
A.  v.  REUMONT  :  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Horn.    Berlin,  1867-70,  3  vols. 
C.  HOFLER  (R.  0.) :  Die  Avignonischen  Papste9  ihre  Machtfulle  und  ihr 

Untergang.    Wien,  1871. 
R.  ZOPFFEL  :  Die  Papstwahlen  und  die  mit  ihnen  im  nachsten  Zlusammen- 

hange  stehenden  Ceremonien  in  ihrer  Entwicklung  vom  11  bis  14.  Jahr- 

hundert.    Gottingen,  1872. 
*  JAMES  BRYCE  (Prof,  of  Civil  Law  in  Oxford) :  The  Holy  Eoman  Empire, 

London,  3rd  ed.,  1871,  8th  ed.  enlarged,  1880. 

W.  WATTENBACH  :  GesehMtc.  desrbmischen  Ptrpstthums.    Berlin,  1876. 
*Jtn,.  VON  PFiiTJGK-HARTTiiNG :   Acta  Pontificum  Romanorum  inedita. 

Bd.  I.     Urkunden  der  Papste  A.  D.  748-1198.    Gotha,   1880. 
O,  J.  REICHEL  :  The  See  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Aqes.    Lond.  1870, 
MAXWELL  CREIGHTON:  History  of  the  Papacy  during  the  Reformation. 

London  1882.        2  vols. 

J.  N.  MURPHY  (R.  O.) :  The  Ghair  of  Peter,  or  the  Papacy  and  its  Bene- 
fits.   London  1883. 


\  49.  CHEONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  THE  POPES,  ETC.    205 

§  49.  Chronological  Table  of  the  Popes,  Anti-Popes,  and  Eoman 
Emperors  from  Gregory  I.  to  Leo  XIIL 

We  present  here,  for  convenient  reference,  a  complete  list  of 
the  Popes,  Anti-Popes,  and  Eoman  Emperors,  from  Pope  Gre- 
gory I.  to  Leo  XIIL,  and  from  Charlemagne  to  Francis  IL, 
the  last  of  the  Gferman-Roman  emperors : l 


A.D. 

POPES. 

ANTI-POPES. 

EMPERORS. 

A.D. 

590-604 

St.  Gregory  L 

(GREEK  EMPEROBS) 
Maurice. 

582 

(the  Great). 

Phocas. 

602 

604-606 

Sabinianus. 

607 

Boniface  III. 

608-615 

Boniface  IV. 

Heraclius. 

610 

615-618 

Deusdedit. 

619-625 

Boniface  V. 

625-638 

Honorius  I. 

638(?)-640 
640-642 
642-649 

Severinus. 
John  IV. 
Theodoras  L 

Constantine  HI. 
ConstansII. 

641 

619-053  [055] 

654-657 
657-672 

St.  Martin  I. 
Eugenius  I. 
Vitalianus. 

CJonstantine  IV- 
[Pogonatos.) 

668 

672-676 

Adeodatus. 

676-678 

Donus  or  Dom 

nusL 

678-681 

Agatho. 

682-683 

Leo  II. 

683-685 

Benedict  II. 

685-686 

John  V. 

Justinian  II. 

685 

686-687 

Conon. 

687-692 

Paschal. 

Leontius. 

694 

687 

Theodoras. 

Tiberius  HI. 

697 

687-701 

Sergius  I. 

Fustinus  II.  restored 

705 

701-705 

John  VL 

PhilippicusBardanes 

711 

705-707 

John  VII. 

Anastasius  II. 

713 

708 

Sisinnius. 

Theodosius  III. 

716 

708-715 

Constantine  L 

Leo  in.  (the  Isau- 

715-731 

Gregory  II. 

rian). 

718 

731-741 

Gregory  HI. 

Charles  Martel.  d. 
741,  defeated  the 

Saracens  at  Tours, 

732.) 

741-752 

Zacharias. 

Pepin  the  Short, 

1  This  list  is  compiled  from  Jaffe*  (Regesta),  Potthast  (Bibl.  Hist.  Medii  Mm, 
Supplement,  259-267),  and  other  sources.  The  whole  number  of  popes  from 
the  Apostle  Peter  to  Leo  XIIL  is  263. 

The  emperors  marked  with  an  asterisk  were  crowned  by  the  pope;  the 
others  were  simply  kings  and  emperors  of  Germany. 


206 


FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 


A.B. 

POPES. 

AMI-POPES. 

EMPERORS. 

A.2>. 

752 

Stephen  IL 

Boman  (Patricias)  . 

741 

75^-757 

Stephen  HL  (EL) 

757-767 

Paul  I. 

767-768 

Constantine  II. 

ROMAN  EMPERORS 

768 

Philippus. 

768-772 

Stephen  IV. 

772-795 

Adrian  I. 

*Charlemagne 

768-814 

795-816 

Leo  UI. 

Crowned  emperor  at 

810-817 

Stephen  V. 

Borne, 

800 

817-824 

Paschal  L 

*Louis  the  Pious. 

824-827 

Eugenius  IL 

(le  De*bonnaire). 

814r-840 

827 

Valentinus. 

Crowned  em.  at  Rheims- 

816 

827-844 

Gregory  IV. 

*Lothaire  I.  (crown- 

844 

John  (diaconus). 

ed  823). 

840-855 

844-847 

Sergius  II. 

(Louis  the  German, 

847-855 

Leo  IV. 

King  of  Germany, 

The  mythical 

papess  Joan  or  John 

840-876.) 

855-858 

Benedict  III. 

VEIL 

855 

Anastasius. 

*Louis  II.  (in  Italy) 

855-875 

858-867 

Nicolas  L 

867-872 

Adrian  H. 

872-882 

JohnVIH. 

*Charles  the  Bald. 

875-881 

882-884 

Marinus  L 

^Charles  the  Fat. 

881-887 

88^885 

Adrian  HJ. 

885-891 

Stephen  VI. 

*Araulf. 

887-899 

891-896 

Formosus. 

Crowned  emperor, 

896 

896 

Boni&ce  VI. 

896-897 

Stephen  VII. 

(murdered). 

897 

Eomanus. 

897 

Theodoras  II. 

898-900 

John  IX. 

(Louis  the  Child.) 

899 

900-903 

Benedict  IV. 

903 

LeoV. 

Louis  UI.  of  Pro- 

903-904 
904^911 

Christophorus 
Sergius  in. 

(deposed). 

vence  (in  Italy). 
Conrad  I.  (of  Fran- 

901 

911-913 

Anastasius  HI. 

conia),  King  of 

913-914 

Lando. 

Germany. 

911-918 

914-928 

John  X- 

Berengar  (in  Italy). 

915 

928-929 

Leo  VI. 

Henry  I.  (the  Fow- 

929-931 
931-936 

Stephen  VOL 
John  XL 

ler),  King  of  Ger- 
many. The  House 

936-939 

LeoVH. 

of  Saxony. 

918-926 

939-942 

Stephen  IX. 

*Otto  L  (the  Great). 

936-973 

942-946 

Marinus  II. 

Crowned  emperor, 

962 

946-955 

Agapetus  II. 

955-963 

John  XII. 

(deposed). 

963-965 

Leo  VIII. 

964 

Benedict  V. 

(deposed). 

965-972 

John  XIII. 

972-974 

Benedict  VI. 

*OttoIL 

973-983 

974-983 

Benedict  VIE. 

(Boniface  "VH.?) 

983-984 

John  XIV. 

(murdered). 

*OttoIH. 

983-1002 

984-985 

Boni&eeVH. 

Crowned  emperor, 

996 

49.  CHKONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  THE  POPES,  ETC.    207 


A.D. 

POPBS. 

ANTI-POPES. 

EMPERORS. 

J..D. 

985-996 

John  XV. 

996-999 

Gregory  V. 

997-998 
998-1003 
1003 
1003-1009 
1009-1012 

Silvester  II. 
John  XVII. 
John  XVIII. 
Sergius  IV. 

Calabritamis  John  XVI 

*Henry  II.  (the  Saint 
the  last  of  the 
Saxon  empe'rs  - 
Crowned  emperor, 

1002-1024 
1014 

1012-1024 

Benedict  VIII 

*Gonrad     II.     The 

1012 
1024-1033 
1033-1046 

John  XIX. 
Benedict  IX. 

Gregory, 
deposed). 

House  of  Franconia 
Crowned  emperor 

1024-1039 
1027 

1044-1046 
1045-1046 
1016-1047 

Gregory  VL 
Clement  II. 

Silvester  HI. 

*Henry  III, 
Crowned  emperor 

1039-1056 
1046 

1047-1048 

Damasus  II. 

1048-1054 

Leo  IX. 

1054-1057 

Victor  II. 

*Henry  IV. 

1056-1106 

1057-105S 

Stephen  X. 

Crowned  by  the  An- 

1058-1059 

Benedict  X. 

(deposed). 

tipope  Clement 

1084 

1058-1061 

Mcolas  II. 

1061-1073 

Alexander  II. 

(Rudolf  of  Swabia. 

1061 

Cadalous  (Honorius  11.). 

rival). 

1077 

1073-1085 

Gregory  VII. 

(Hildebrandj. 

(Hermann  of  Lux- 

1080-1100 

Wibertus(Clement  III.) 

emburg,  rival). 

1081 

1086-1087 

Victor  III. 

1088-1099 

Urban  II. 

1099-1118 

Paschal  II. 

1100 

Dheodoricus. 

1102 

Albertus. 

*HenryV. 

1106-1125 

1105-1111 

tfaginulfus    (Silves- 

1118-1119 

Gelasius  II. 

ter  IV.). 

1138-1121 

fordinus  (Gregory 

*Lothaire  II  (the  Saxon 

1125-1137 

1119-1124 

Calbrtus  II. 

YIU.). 

1124 
1124-1130 

Bfonorius  It. 

Theobaldus  Buccape- 
cus  (Celestine). 

*Conrad   IIL.    The 
House  of  Hohen- 

1130-1143 

[nnocent  II. 

staufen.  (TheSwa- 

1130-1138 
1138 
1143-1144 

Celestine  II. 

Anacletus,  n. 
Gregory  (Victor  IV.). 

bian  emperors.) 
Crowned  Em.  at  Aix 

1138-1152 

1144-1145 

jucius  II. 

1145-1153 

Eugenius  IIL 

^Frederick  I.  (Bar- 

barossa). 

1152-1190 

1153-1154 
1154-1159 

Anastasius  TV. 
Adrian  IV. 

Crowned  emperor, 

1155 

1159-1181 

AHeTar^r  TIT 

1159-1164 

'ctavianus  (Victor  IV.) 

•nido  Cremensis 

1164-1168 

(Paschal  III.), 
bhannes  de  Struma. 

1168-1178 

(Calixtus  III.). 

1178-1180 
1181-1185 

jucius  TTT. 

Landus  Titinus 
(Innocent  IIL). 

1185-1187 

JrbanllL 

208 


FOUKTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049- 


A.l>. 

POPES. 

ANTI-POPES. 

EMPERORS. 

A.D. 

1187 

Gregory  VIII. 

1187-1191 

Clement  III. 

*Henry  VI. 

1190-1197 

1191-1198 

Celestine  III. 

1198-1216 

Innocent  III. 

Philip  of  Swabia,  and 

Otto  IV.  (rivals). 

1198 

*Otto  IV. 

1209-1215 

1216-1227 

Honorius  III. 

*Frederick  II. 

1215-1260 

1227-1241 

Gregory  IX. 

Crowned  emperor. 

1220 

1241 

Celestine  IV- 

1241-1254 

Innocent  IV. 

(Henry  Easpe,  rival) 
(William  of  Holland 

rival). 

Conrad  IV- 

1250-1254 

1254-1261 

Alexander  IV. 

Interregnum. 

1254-1273 

Richai  d  (Earl  of  Corn- 

wall). 

1261-1264 

Urban  IV. 

Alfonso  (King  of  Cas- 
tile)— (rivals). 

1257 

1265-1268 

Clement  IV- 

1271-1276 

Gregory  X. 

Rudolf  I.  (of  Haps- 

1276 

Innocent  V. 

burg).    House  of 

1276 

Adrian  V. 

Austria. 

1272-1291 

1276-1277 

John  XXL 

1277-3280 

Nicolas  III. 

1281-1285 

Martin  IV. 

1285-1287 

Honorius  IV. 

1288-1292 

Nicolas  IV. 

Adolf  (of  Nassau). 

1292-1298 

1294 

St.  Celestine  V. 

(abdicated). 

1294W303 

Boniface  VIII. 

Albert  I.  (of  Haps- 

1303-1304 

Benedict  XI. 

burg). 

1298-1308 

1305-1314 

Clement  V.1 

*Henry  Vff.  (of 

Luxemburg). 
*Lewis  IV.  (of  Bava- 

1308-1313 

1316-1334 
1334-1342 

John  XXII. 
Benedict  XII. 

ria). 
(Frederick  the  Fair 

131*4347 

1342-1352 

Clement  VI. 

of  Austria,  rival, 

1314-1330.) 

1352-1362 

[nnocent  VI. 

*Charles  IV-  (of 

1362-1370 
1370-1378 

Urban  V. 
Gregory  XL 

Luxemburg). 
(Gunther  of 

1347-1437 

1378-1389 

Urban  VL 

Schwarzburg,  rival). 

1  Clement  V.  moved  the  papal  see  to  Avignon  in  1309,  and  his  successors 
continued  to  reside  there  for  seventy  years,  till  Gregory  XL  After  that  date 
arose  a  forty  years'  schism  between  the  Roman  popes  and  the  Avignon  popes. 


49.  CBGBONOLOGIOAL  TABLE  OF  THE  POPES,  ETC.    209 


A.I>. 

POPES. 

Aim-POPES. 

EMPEKOBS. 

A.B. 

1378-1394 
1389-1404 
1394^1423 

1404-1406 
1406-1409 
1410-1415 
1410-1415 

1417-1431 
1431-1447 

1439-1449 

1447-1455 
1455-1458 
1458-1464 
1464-1471 
1471-1484 
1484-1492 
1492-1503 
1503 
1503-1513 
1513-1521 

1522-1523 
1523-1534 
1534-1549 
1550-1555 
1555 
1555-1559 

1559-1565 
1566-1572 
1572-1585 
1585-1590 
1590 
1590^-1591 
1591 
1592-1605 
1605 
1605-1621 
1621-1623 
1623-1644 
1644-1655 
1655-1667 
1667-1669 

Boniface  IX. 

[nnocentVIL 
jSregory  XII. 
Alexander  V. 
JohnXXin. 

Marian  V. 
Eugene  IV* 

Nicolas  V. 
GalixtnsIV. 
PrasIL 
PanllL 
SixtnsIV. 
Innocent  Yin. 
Alexander  VL 
Pinsin. 
Julius  II. 
Leo  X. 

Hadrian  VL 
Clement  VIL 
Pauim. 
Jnlinsin. 
MarceUnsIL 
PanllV. 

Pins  IV. 
PinsV. 
Gregory  XBDE. 
ShrtosV- 
Urban  VH. 
Gregory  XIV. 
Innocent  DL 
Clement  VIII. 
Leo  XL 
PanlV. 
Gregory  XV. 
Urban  VICL 
Innocent  X. 
Alexander  VII 

aement  VIL 
Benedict  XHL 

Wenzel  (of  Lnxem- 
borg). 

Bupert  (of  the  Pala- 
tinate). 

*SipriRrmiTirl  (cf  T,nx- 

1378-140Q 
1400-1410 
1410-1437 

1438-1439 

1440-1493 
1452 

1493-1519 

1519-1558 
1530 

1558-1564 

1564-1576 

1576-1612 

1612-1619 
1619-1637 

1637-1657 
1657-1705 

(deposed,  1409) 
(deposed), 
(deposed). 

dement  YJLLJL 
Felix  V- 

&       t        * 

embnrg). 
(  Jobst  of  Moravia, 
rival.) 

Albert  IL  (of  Haps- 
burg). 

*Fredericfcin.1 
Crowned  emperor. 

Ma^mili^n  T. 

*Gnarles  V* 
Crowned  emperor  at 
Bologna  not  in  Borne 

Ferdinand  L 
IjMftT-iittfKsTn  ffr 

EndolfIL 

Matthias. 
Ferdinand  IL 

Ferdinand  IIL 
Leopold  L 

Clement  IX- 

1  Frederick  HI.  was  the  last  emperor  crowned  in  Borne.   Alt  his  successors, 
except  Charles  VIL  and  Francis  L,  were  of  the  House  of  Hapeborg. 


210 


FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 


A.D. 

POPES. 

ANTI-POPES. 

EMPERORS. 

A.D. 

1G07-1G76 

Clement  X. 

1676-1689 

Innocent  XL 

1689-1691 

Alex'derVIII. 

1091-1700 

Innocent  XII. 

1700-1721 

Clement  XI. 

Joseph  I. 

1705-1711 

1721-1724 
1724-1730 
1730-1740 
1740-1758 

Innocent  XIII. 
Benedict  XIII. 
Clement  XII. 
Benedict  XIV. 

Charles  VI. 
Charles  VIL  (of  Ba- 
varia). 
Francis  I.  (of  Lor- 
raine). 

1711-1740 
1742-1745 
1745-1765 

1758-1769 

Clement  XIII. 

Joseph  II. 

1765-1790 

1769-1774 

Clement  XIV. 

1775-1799 

Pius  VI. 

Leopold  II. 

1790-1792 

Francis  II. 

1792-1806 

1800-1823 

Pius  VIL 

Abdication  of  Fran- 

1823-1829 

Leo  XII. 

cis  II. 

1806 

1829-1830 
1831-1846 
1846-1878 

Pius  VIII. 
Gregory  XVI. 
Pius  IX.  (long- 
est reign). 

'Francis  I.,  Emperor 
of  Austria). 
German  Confederation 

STorth  German  Con- 
federation. 

1814-1866 
1866-1870 

1878 

Leo  XIII. 

[New  German  Empire. 

1870 

William  I.  of  Prussia. 

1870] 

2  50.  GKEGORY  THE  GBEAT.    A.D.  590-604.  211 

§  50.  Gregory  the  Great.    A.D.  590-604 

LITEBATUBE. 

I  GREGORII  ML  Opera.    The  best  is  the  Benedictine  ed.  of  D<m*  de  Ste 

Martke  (Dionysius  Sammarthanus  e  congregatione  St.  Mauri),  Par.. 

1705,  4  vols.  fol.    Eeprinted  in  Venice,  1768-76,  in  17  vols.  4to.; 

and,  with  additions,  in  Migne's  Patrologw,,  1849,  in  5  vols.  (Toin. 

75-79). 
Especially  valuable  are  Gregory's  Epistles,  nearly  850  (in  third  vol.  of 

Migne's  ed.).    A  new  ed.  is  being  prepared  by  Paul  Ewald. 
II.  Biographies  of  Gregory  L 

(1)  Older  biographies:  in  the  "  Liber  Pontificalis;"  by  PATTLTTS  DIACOITOS 

(f797),  in  Opera  L  42  (ed.  Migne);  by  JOHANSTES  DIACOOTS  (9th 
cent.),  ibid.,  p.  59,  and  one  selected  from  his  writings,  iMd.,  p.  242. 
Detailed  notices  of  Gregory  in  the  writings  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  Bede, 
Isidorus  Hispal.,  Paul  WarneMed  (730). 

(2)  Modern  biographies : 

G.LAU:  Gregor  Lna^hsdnem  LelenuridnachsdnerLehre.  Leipz.,1845. 
B6HRINGER:  Die  Kirche  Christi  und  ihre  Zeugen.    Bd.  L,  Abth.  IV. 

Zurich,  1846. 

G.  PFAHLER  :  Gregor  der  Gr.  und  seine  Zeit.    Frk£  a.  M.,  1852. 
JAMES  BARMBY:    Gregory  the  Great.    London,  1879.    Also  his  art. 

" Gregorius  I."  in  Smith  &  Wace,  " Diet,  of  Christ.  Biogr.,"  IL  779 

(1880). 
Comp.  JAFF6,  NEANDER,  MILMAIT  (Book  IJJ.,  ch.  7,  vol.  n.;  39  sqq.); 

GREENWOOD  (Book  in.,  chs.  6  and  7);  MONTALEMBERT  (Lesmoines 

d' Occident,  Bk.  V.,  Engl.  transl.,  vol.  H ,  69  sqq*) ;  BAXMANN  (Poll- 

tik  der  Pdpste,  I.  44  sqq.) ;    ZOPFFEI*  (art  Gregor  L  in  th&  new  ed. 

of  Herzog). 

"  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  popes  of  earlier  times/' 
says  Eauke,1  "  they  always  had  great  interests  in  view :  the  care 
of  oppressed  religion,  the  conflict  with  heathenism,  the  spread 
of  Christianity  among  the  northern  nations,  the  founding  of  an 
independent  hierarchy.  It  belongs  to  the  dignity  of  human  ex- 
istence to  aim  at  and  to  execute  something  great;  this  tendency 
the  popes  kept  in  upward  motion." 

This  commendation  of  the  earlier  popes,  though  by  no  means 
applicable  to  all,  is  eminently  true  of  the  one  who  stands  at  the 
beginning  of  our  period. 

1  Die  Romischen  Pdpste  deslGund  llten  Jahrhwderts,  Th.  L,  p.  44  (2nd  ed.). 


212  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

GEEGOBY  THE  FERST,  or  THE  GREAT,  the  last  of  the  Latin 
fathers  and  the  first  of  the  popes,  connects  the  ancient  with  the 
mediaeval  church,  the  Grseeo-Roman  with  the  Eomano-Grermanic 
type  of  Christianity.  He  is  one  of  the  best  representatives  of 
mediaeval  Catholicism:  monastic,  ascetic,  devout  and  supersti- 
tious ;  hierarchical,  haughty,  and  ambitious,  yet  humble  before 
God ;  indifferent,  if  not  hostile,  to  classical  and  secular  culture, 
but  friendly  to  sacred  and  ecclesiastical  learning;  just,  humane, 
and  liberal  to  ostentation;  full  of  missionary  zeal  in  the  interest 
of  Christianity  and  the  Roman  see,  which  to  his  mind  were 
inseparably  connected.  He  combined  great  executive  ability 
with  untiring  industry,  and  amid  all  his  official  cares  he  never 
forgot  the  claims  of  personal  piety.  In  genius  he  was  surpassed 
by  Leo  L,  Gregory  Vll.,  Innocent  HI.;  but  as  a  man  and  as 
a  Christian,  he  ranks  with  the  purest  and  most  useful  of  the 
popes.  Goodness  is  the  highest  kind  of  greatness,  and  the 
church  has  done  right  in  according  the  title  of  the  Great  to  him 
rather  than  to  other  popes  of  superior  intellectual  power. 

The  times  of  his  pontificate  (A.  D.  Sept.  3,  590  to  March  12, 
604)  were  full  of  trouble,  and  required  just  a  man  of  his  train- 
ing and  character.  Italy,  from  a  Gothic  kingdom,  had  become 
a  province  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  but  was  exhausted  by  war 
and  overrun  by  the  savage  Lombards,  who  were  still  heathen 
or  Arian  heretics,  and  burned  churches,  slew  ecclesiastics,  robbed 
monasteries,  violated  nuns,  reduced  cultivated  fields  into  a  wil- 
derness. Borne  was  constantly  exposed  to  plunder,  and  wasted 
by  pestilence  and  famine.  All  Europe  was  in  a  chaotic  state, 
and  bordering  on  anarchy.  Serious  men,  and  Gregory  himself, 
thought  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  near  at  hand.  "  What 
is  it/7  says  he  in  one  of  his  sermons,  "  that  cati  at  "this  time  de- 
light us  in  this  world?  Everywhere  we  see  tribulation,  every- 
where we  hear  lamentation.  The  cities  are  destroyed,  the  castles 
torn  down,  the  fields  laid  waste,  the  land  made  desolate.  Vil- 
lages are  empty,  few  inhabitants  remain  in  the  cities,  and  even 
these  poor  remnants  of  humanity  are  daily  cut  down.  The 


2  50.  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.    A.D.  590-604.  213 

scourge  of  celestial  justice  does  not  cease,  because  no  repentance 
takes  place  under  the  scourge.  We  see  how  some  are  carried 
into  captivity,  others  mutilated,  others  slain.  What  is  it,  breth- 
ren, that  can  make  us  contented  with  this  life?  If  we  love  such 
a  world,  we  love  not  our  joys,  but  our  wounds.  We  see  what  has 
become  of  her  who  was  once  the  mistress  of  the  world  ..... 
Let  us  then  heartily  despise  the  present  world  and  imitate  the 
works  of  the  pious  as  well  as  we  can." 

Gregory  was  born  about  A.  D.  540,  from  an  old  and  wealthy 
senatorial  (the  Anician)  family  of  Rome,  and  educated  for  the 
service  of  the  government.  He  became  acquainted  with  Latin 
literature,  and  studied  Ambrose,  Jerome,  and  Augustin,  but  was 
ignorant  of  Greek.  His  mother  Sylvia,  after  the  death  of  Gor- 
dianus,  her  husband,  entered  a  convent,  and  so  excelled  in  sanc- 
tity that  she  was  canonized.  The  Greek  emperor  Justin  ap- 
pointed him  to  the  highest  civil  office  in  Eome,  that  of  imperial 
prefect  (574).  But  soon  afterwards  he  broke  with  the  world, 
changed  the  palace  of  his  father  near  Borne  into  a  convent  in 
honor  of  St.  Andrew,  and  became  himself  a  monk  in  it,  after- 
wards abbot.  He  founded  besides  six  convents  in  Sicily,  and 
bestowed  his  remaining  wealth  on  the  poor.  He  lived  in  the 
strictest  abstinence,  and  undermined  his  health  by  ascetic  ex- 
cesses. Nevertheless  he  looked  back  upon  this  time  as  the  hap- 
piest of  his  life. 

Pope  Pelagius  IL  made  Mm  one  of  the  seven  deacons  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  sent  him  as  ambassador  or  nuntius  to  the 
court  of  Constantinople  (579).1  Has  political  tedning  and  exe- 
cutive ability  fitted  Trim  eminently  for  this  post.  He  returned 
in  585,  and  was  appointed  abbot  of  his  convent,  but  employed 
also  for  important  public  business. 


1  Apocrisiarius  (aicoKptfft&ptae,  or  fyyeAof),  responsdis.  Du  Gauge  defines  it: 
''  Nuntius,  Legates  .  .  prcesertim  qui  a  pontifice  Romano*  vd  etiam  ab  arckiepiscopi& 
ad  amifafom  mittebantur,  quo  res  ecdtswrum  suarum  peragerent,  et  dews  ad  prin- 
dpem  referrcnL"  The  Roman  delegates  to  Constantinople  were  usually  taken 
from  the  deacons.  Gregory  is  the  fifth  Roman  deacon  who  served  in  this 
capacity  at  Constantinople,  according  to  Du  Cange  a.  v.  Apocrisiarius. 


214:  FOUETH  PEBIOJX    A.  D.  590-1049 

It  was  during  his  monastic  period  (either  before  or,  more  pro- 
bably, after  his  return  from  Constantinople)  that  his  missionary 
zeal  was  kindled,  by  an  incident  on  the  slave  market,  in  behalf 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons.  The  result  (as  recorded  in  a  previous 
chapter)  was  the  conversion  of  England  and  the  extension  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  see,  during  his  pontificate.  This  is 
the  greatest  event  of  that  age,  and  the  brightest  jewel  in  his 
crown.  Like  a  Christian  Caesar,  he  re-conquered  that  fair  island 
by  an  army  of  thirty  monks,  marching  under  the  sign  of  the 


cross. l 


In  590  Gregory  was  elected  pope  by  the  unanimous  voice  of 
the  clergy,  the  senate,  and  the  people,  notwithstanding  his  strong 
remonstrance,  and  confirmed  by  his  temporal  sovereign,  the 
Byzantine  emperor  Mauricius.  Monasticism,  for  the  first  time, 
ascended  the  papal  throne.  Hereafter  till  his  death  he  devoted 
all  his  energies  to  the  interests  of  the  holy  see  and  the  eternal 
city,  in  the  firm  consciousness  of  being  the  successor  of  St.  Peter 
and  the  vicar  of  Christ.  He  continued  the  austere  simplicity  of 
monastic  life,  surrounded  himself  with  monks,  made  them  bishops 
and  legates,  confirmed  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  at  a  council  of 
Eome,  guaranteed  the  liberty  and  property  of  convents,  and  by 
his  example  and  influence  rendered  signal  services  to  the  monas- 
tic order.  He  was  unbounded  in  his  charities  to  the  poor. 
Three  thousand  virgins,  impoverished  nobles  and  matrons  re- 
vived without  a  blush  alms  from  his  hands.  He  sent  food 
from  his  table  to  the  hungry  before  he  sat  down  for  his  frugal 
meal.  He  interposed  continually  in  favor  of  injured  widows 
and  orphans.  He  redeemed  slaves  and  captives,  and  sanctioned 
the  sale  of  consecrated  vessels  for  objects  of  charity. 

Gregory  began  his  administration  with  a  public  act  of  humi- 
liation on  account  of  the  plague  which  had  cost  the  life  of  his 
predecessor.  Seven  processions  traversed  the  streets  for  three 
days  with  prayers  and  hymns;  but  the  plague  continued  to 
ravage,  and  demanded  eighty  victims  during  the  procession. 
1  See  above  \  10,  pp.  30  sqq. 


g  50.  GEEGOEY  THE  GEEAT.    A.D.  590-604.  215 

The  later  legend  made  it  the  means  of  staying  the  calamity,  in 
consequence  of  the  appearance  of  the  archangel  Michael  putting 
back  the  drawn  sword  into  its  sheath  over  the  Mausoleum  of 
Hadrian,  since  called  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  adorned  by 
the  statue  of  an  angel. 

His  activity  as  pontiff  was  incessant,  and  is  the  more  astonish- 
ing as  he  was  in  delicate  health  and  often  confined  to  bed. 
"  For  a  long  time,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  601,  "  I  have  been 
unable  to  rise  from  my  bed.  I  am  tormented  by  the  pains  of 
gout;  a  kind  of  fire  seems  to  pervade  my  whole  body:  to  live 
is  pain;  and  I  look  forward  to  death  as  the  only  remedy."  In 
another  letter  he  says :  "  I  am  daily  dying,  but  never  die." 

Nothing  seemed  too  great,  nothing  too  little  for  his  personal 
care.  He  organized  and  completed  the  ritual  of  the  church, 
gave  it  greater  magnificence,  improved  the  canon  of  the  mass 
and  the  music  by  a  new  mode  of  chanting  called  after  him.  He 
preached  often  and  effectively,  deriving  lessons  of  humility  and 
piety  from  the  calamities  of  the  times,  which  appeared  to  him 
harbingers  of  the  judgment-day.  He  protected  the  city  of  Eome 
against  the  savage  and  heretical  Lombards.  He  administered 
the  papal  patrimony,  which  embraced  large  estates  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Rome,  in  Calabria,  Sardinia,  Corsica,  Sicily,  Dalma- 
tia,  and  even  in  Gaul  and  Africa.  He  encouraged  and  advised 
missionaries.  As  patriarch  of  the  West,  he  extended  his  pater- 
nal care  over  the  churches  in  Italy,  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain, 
and  sent  the  pallium  to  some  metropolitans,  yet  without  claim- 
ing any  legal  jurisdiction.  He  appointed,  he  also  reproved  and 
deposed  bishops  for  neglect  of  duty  or  crime.  He  resolutely 
opposed  the  prevalent  practice  of  simony,  and  forbade  the  clergy 
to  exact  or  accept  fees  for  their  services.  He  corresponded,  in 
the  interest  of  the  church,  with  nobles,  kings  and  queens  in  the 
West,  with  emperors  and  patriarchs  in  the  East.  He  hailed  the 
return  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  of  Spain  under  Eeccared  from 
the  Arian  heresy  to  the  Catholic  faith,  which  was  publicly  pro- 
claimed by  the  Council  of  Toledo,  May  8,  589.  He  wrote  to 


216  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

the  king  a  letter  of  congratulation,  and  exhorted  him  to  humility, 
chastity,  and  mercy.  The  detested  Lombards  likewise  cast  off 
Arianism  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  in  consequence  partly  of 
his  influence  over  Queen  Theodelinda,  a  Bavarian  princess,  who 
had  been  reared  in  the  trinitarian  faith.  He  endeavored  to 
suppress  the  remnants  of  the  Donatist  schism  in  Africa.  Un- 
compromising against  Christian  heretics  and  schismatics,  he  was 
a  step  in  advance  of  his  age  in  liberality  towards  the  Jews.  He 
censured  the  bishop  of  Terracina  and  the  bishop  of  Cagliari  for 
unjustly  depriving  them  of  their  synagogues;  he  condemned  the 
forcible  baptism  of  Jews  in  Gaul,  and  declared  conviction  by 
preaching  the  only  legitimate  means  of  conversion ;  he  did  not 
scruple,  however,  to  try  the  dishonest  method  of  bribery,  and 
he  inconsistently  denied  the  Jews  the  right  of  building  new 
synagogues  and  possessing  Christian  slaves.  He  made  efforts, 
though  in  vain,  to  check  the  slave-trade,  which  was  chiefly  in 
the  hands  of  Jews. 

After  his  death,  the  public  distress,  which  he  had  labored  to 
alleviate,  culminated  in  a  general  famine,  and  the  ungrateful 
populace  of  Rome  was  on  the  point  of  destroying  his  library, 
when  the  archdeacon  Peter  stayed  their  fury  by  asserting  that 
he  had  seen  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  form  of  a  dove  hovering 
above  Gregory's  head  as  he  wrote  his  books.  Hence  he  is  rep- 
resented with  a  dove.  He  was  buried  in  St.  Peter's  under  the 
altar  of  St.  Andrew. 

NOTE.    Estimates  of  Gregory  I. 

Bishop  Bossuet  (as  quoted  by  Montalembert,  II.  173)  thus  tersely  sums 
up  the  public  life  of  Gregory:  "This  great  pope  .  .  .  subdued  the  Lom- 
bards; saved  Borne  and  Italy,  though  the  emperors  could  give  him  no 
assistance ;  repressed  the  new-born  pride  of  the  patriarchs  of  Constanti- 
nople; enlightened  the  whole  church  by  his  doctrine;  governed  the 
East  and  the  West  with  as  much  vigor  as  humility;  and  gave  to  the 
world  a  perfect  model  of  ecclesiastical  government." 

To  this  Count  Montalembert  (likewise  a  Roman  Catholic)  adds:  "It 
was  the  Benedictine  order  which  gave  to  the  church  him  whom  no  one 
would  have  hesitated  to  call  the  greatest  of  the  popes,  had  not  the  same 


g  50.  GBEGOEY  THE  GBEAT.    A.D.  59<M>04.  217 

order,  five  centuries  later,  produced  St.  Gregory  VII.  ...  He  is  truly 
Gregory  the  Great,  because  he  issued  irreproachable  from  numberless 
and  boundless  difficulties ;  because  he  gave  as  a  foundation  to  the  in- 
creasing grandeur  of  the  Holy  See,  the  renown  of  his  virtue,  the  candor 
of  his  innocence,  the  humble  and  inexhaustible  tenderness  of  his  heart." 

"The  pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great/'  says  Gibbon  (ch.  45),  "which 
lasted  thirteen  years,  six  months,  and  ten  days,  is  one  of  the  most  edify- 
ing periods  of  the  history  of  the  church.  TTia  virtues,  and  even  his  faults, 
a  singular  mixture  of  simplicity  and  cunning,  of  pride  and  humility,  of 
sense  and  superstition,  were  happily  suited  to  his  station  and  to  the  tem- 
per of  the  times." 

Lau  says  (in  his  excellent  monograph,  pp.  302,  306):  "The  spiritual 
qualities  of  Gregory's  character  are  strikingly  apparent  in  his  actions. 
With  a  clear,  practical  understanding,  he  combined  a  kind  and  mild  heart ; 
but  he  was  never  weak.  Fearful  to  the  obstinate  transgressor  of  the 
laws,  on  account  of  his  inflexible  justice,  he  was  lenient  to  the  repentant 
and  a  warm  friend  to  his  Mends,  though,  holding,  as  he  did,  righteous- 
ness and  the  weal  of  the  church  higher  than  friendship,  he  was  severe 
upon  any  neglect  of  theirs.  With  a  great  prudence  in  managing  the 
most  different  circumstances,  and  a  great  sagacity  in  treating  the  most 
different  characters,  he  combined  a  moral  firmness  which  never  yielded 
an  inch  of  what  he  had  recognized  as  right;  but  he  never  became  stub- 
born. The  rights  of  the  church  and  the  privileges  of  the  apostolical  see 
he  fought  for  with  the  greatest  pertinacity;  but  for  himself  personally, 
he  wanted  no  honors.  As  much  as  he  thought  of  the  church  and  the 
Roman  chair,  so  modestly  he  esteemed  himself!  More  than  once  his  acts 
gave  witness  to  the  humility  of  his  heart:  humility  was,  indeed,  to  to™ 
the  most  important  and  the  most  sublime  virtue.  His  activity  was  pro- 
digious, encompassing  great  objects  and  small  ones  with  equal  zeal. 
Nothing  ever  became  too  great  for  his  energy  or  too  small  for  his  atten- 
tion. He  was  a  warm  patriot,  and  cared  incessantly  for  the  material  as 
well  as  for  the  spiritual  weliare  of  his  countrymen.  More  than  once  he 
saved  Borne  from  the  Lombards,  and  relieved  her  from  famine.  .  .  .  He 
was  a  great  character  with  grand  plans,  in  the  realization  of  which  he 
showed  as  much  insight  as  firmness,  as  much  prudent  calculation  of  cir- 
cumstances as  sagacious  judgment  of  men.  The  influence  he  has  exer- 
cised is  immense,  and  when  this  influence  is  not  in  every  respect  for  the 
good,  his  tame  is  to  blame,  not  he.  His  goal  was  always  that  which  he 
acknowledged  as  the  best  Among  all  the  popes  of  the  sixth  and  follow- 
ing centuries,  he  shines  as  a  star  of  the  very  first  magnitude." 

Bud.  Baxmann  (I.e.,  I.  45  sq.):  "Amidst  the  general  commotion 
which  the  invasion  of  the  Lombards  caused  in  Italy,  one  man  stood  fast 
on  his  post  in  the  eternal  city,  no  matter  how  high  the  surges  swept  over 
it.  As  Luther,  in  his  last  will,  calls  himself  an  advocate  of  God,  whose 
name  was  well  known  in  heaven  and  on  earth  and  in  hell,  the  epitaph 


218  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

says  of  Gregory  I.  that  he  ruled  as  the  consul  Dei.  He  was  the  chief 
bishop  of  the  republic  of  the  church,  the  fourth  doctor  ecelesice,  beside  the 
three  other  powerful  theologians  and  columns  of  the  Latin  church :  Am- 
brose, Augustine,  and  Jerome.  He  is  justly  called  the  pater  ceremoniarum, 
thejjater  monachorum,  and  the  Great.  What  the  preceding  centuries  had 
produced  in  the  Latin  church  for  church  government  and  dogmatics,  for 
pastoral  care  and  liturgy,  he  gathered  together,  and  for  the  coming  cen- 
turies he  laid  down  the  norms  which  were  seldom  deviated  from." 

To  this  we  add  the  judgment  of  James  Barmby,  the  latest  biographer 
of  Gregory  (Greg.,  p.  191) :  "Of  the  loftiness  of  his  aims,  the  earnestness 
of  his  purpose,  the  fervor  of  his  devotion,  his  unwearied  activity,  and  his 
personal  purity,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  These  qualities  are  conspicuous 
through  his  whole  career.  If  his  religion  was  of  the  strongly  ascetic 
type,  and  disfigured  by  superstitious  credulity,  it  bore  in  these  respects 
the  complexion  of  his  age,  inseparable  then  from  aspiration  after  the 
highest  holiness.  Nor  did  either  superstition  or  asceticism  supersede  in 
him  the  principles  of  a  true  inward  religion— justice,  mercy,  and  truth. 
We  find  him,  when  occasion  required,  exalting  mercy  above  sacrifice ; 
he  was  singularly  kindly  and  benevolent,  as  well  as  just,  and  even  his 
zeal  for  the  foil  rigor  of  monastic  discipline  was  tempered  with  much 
gentleness  and  allowance  for  infirmity.  If,  again,  with  singleness  of 
main  purpose  was  combined  at  times  the  astuteness  of  the  diplomatist, 
and  a  certain  degree  of  politic  insincerity  in  addressing  potentates,  his 
aims  were  never  personal  or  selfish.  And  if  he  could  stoop,  for  the 
attainment  of  his  ends,  to  the  then  prevalent  adulation  of  the  great,  he 
could  also  speak  his  mind  fearlessly  to  the  greatest,  when  he  felt  great 
principles  to  be  at  stake." 

§  51.  Gregory  and  the  Universal  Episcopate* 

The  activity  of  Gregory  tended  powerfully  to  establish  the 
authority  of  the  papal  chair.  He  combined  a  triple  dignity, 
episcopal,  metropolitan,  and  patriarchal.  He  was  bishop  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  metropolitan  over  the  seven  suffragan  (afterwards 
called  cardinal)  bishops  of  the  Roman  territory,  and  patriarch 
of  Italy,  in  fact  of  the  whole  "West,  or  of  all  the  Latin  churches. 
This  claim  was  scarcely  disputed  except  as  to  the  degree  of  his 
power  in  particular  cases.  A  certain  primacy  of  honor  among 
all  the  patriarchs  was  also  conceded,  even  by  the  East.  But  a 
ymiversal  episcopate,  including  an  authority  of  jurisdiction  over 
the  JSastern  or  Greek  church,  was  not  acknowledged,  and,  what 
is  more  remarkable,  was  not  even  claimed  by  him,  but  emphati- 


2  51.  GEEGORY  AND  THE  UNIVEESAL  EPISCOPATE.   219 

cally  declined  and  denounced.  He  stood  between  the  patriarchal 
and  the  strictly  papal  system.  He  regarded  the  four  patriarchs 
of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem,  to  whom 
he  announced  his  election  with  a  customary  confession  of  his 
faith,  as  co-ordinate  leaders  of  the  church  under  Christ,  the 
supreme  head,  corresponding  as  it  were  to  the  four  oecumenical 
councils  and  the  four  gospels,  as  their  common  foundation,  yet 
after  all  with  a  firm  belief  in  a  papal  primacy.  Hig  correspon- 
dence with  the  East  on  this  subject  is  exceedingly  important. 
The  controversy  began  in  595,  and  lasted  several  years,  but  was 
not  settled. 

John  IV-,  the  Faster,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  repeatedly 
used  in  his  letters  the  title  "(Ecumenical"  or  '* universal  bishop." 
This  was  an  honorary  title,  which  had  been  given  to  patriarchs 
by  the  emperors  Leo  and  Justinian,  and  confirmed  to  John  and 
his  successors  by  a  Constantinopolitan  synod  in  588.  It  had 
also  been  used  in  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  of  pope  Leo  L1 

1  Gregory  alludes  to  this  fact  in  a  letter  to  John  (Lib.  V.  18,  in  Migne's  ed. 
of  Greg.  Opera^  vol.  III.  740)  and  to  the  emperor  Mauritius  (Lib.  V.  20,  in 
Migne  HI.  747),  but  says  in  both  that  the  popes  never  claimed  nor  used  "  hoc 
temerarium  lumen"  ..." Certe  pro  beati  Petri  apostolorum  prineipis  hwwre,  per 
venerandam  Cfialcedonensem,  synodum  JSomcww)  pontifiti  oblatum  est  [nomen  istud 
blasphemies].  Sed  nullus  eorum  unqwm  hoc  singularitatis  nomine  uti  consensit,  ne 
dum  privatum  atiquid  daretur  unit  honore  debito  sacerdotes  privarentur  universi. 
Quid  est  ergo  quod  nos  hujus  vocabuK  gloriam  et  oblatam  mm  quoerimus,  et  alter  wbi 
hanc  ampere  et  non  oblatam  prassumitf'*  Strictly  speaking,  however,  the  fact 
assumed  by  Gregory  is  not  quite  correct.  Leo  was  styled  okou/im/cdf  ap^e- 
K'USKOTCO$  only  in  an  accusation  against  Dioscurus,  in  the  third  session  of  Chal- 
cedon. The  papal  delegates  subscribed:  Vicarii  apostolici  universalis  eodewh 
PAPJB,  which  was  translated  by  the  Greeks :  rrjs  oiieovfisvutfie  EKKfajaiag  emcrKonov. 
The  popes  claimed  to  be  popes  (but  not  bishops)  of  the  universal  church.  See 
Hefele,  Conciliengesch.  II.  526.  Boniface  IK.  is  said  to  have  openly  assumed 
the  title  univ&rsalis  episcopus  in  606,  when  he  obtained  from  the  emperor  Pho- 
<aw  a  decree  styling  the  see  of  Peter  "caput  omnium  ecdesiarum."  It  appears 
as  serf-assumed  in  the  Liber  Diurnus,  A.D.  682-'5,  and  is  frequent  after 
the  seventh  century.  The  canonists,  however,  make  a  distinction  between 
"universcdis  ecdesm  episcopus"  and  "episcopw  iwiversdis"  or  'f cecvmcnicusj" 
meaning  by  the  latter  an  immediate  jurisdiction  in  thd  diocese  of  other  bishops, 
which  was  formerly  denied  to  the  pope.  But  according  to  the  Vatican  system 
of  1870,  he  is  the  bishop  of  bishops,  over  every  single  bishop,  and  over  all 


220  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  B.  590-1049. 

But  Gregory  I.  was  provoked  and  irritated  beyond  measure  by 
the  assumption  of  his  Eastern  rival,  and  strained  every  nerve 
to  procure  a  revocation  of  that  title.  He  characterized  it  as  a 
foolish,  proud,  profane,  wicked,  pestiferous,  blasphemous,  and 
diabolical  usurpation,  and  compared  him  who  used  it  to  Lucifer. 
He  wrote  first  to  Sabinianus,  his  apocrisiarius  or  ambassador  in 
Constantinople,  then  repeatedly  to  the  patriarch,  to  the  emperor 
Mauricius,  and  even  to  the  empress;  for  with  all  his  monkish 
contempt  for  woman,  he  availed  himself  on  every  occasion  of 
the  female  influence  in  high  quarters.  He  threatened  to  break 
off  communion  with  the  patriarch.  He  called  upon  the  empe- 
ror to  punish  such  presumption,  and  reminded  him  of  the  con- 
tamination of  the  see  of  Constantinople  by  such  arch-heretics  as 
jSTestorius.1 

Failing  in  his  efforts  to  change  the  mind  of  his  rival  in  New 
Borne,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and 
Antioch,  and  played  upon  their  jealousy;  but  they  regarded  the 
title  simply  as  a  form  of  honor,  and  one  of  them  addressed  him 
as  oecumenical  pope,  a  compliment  which  Gregory  could  not 
consistently  accept.2 

After  the  death  of  John  the  Faster  in  596,  Gregory  instructed 
his  ambassador  at  Constantinople  to  demand  from  the  new  pa- 
triarch, Cyriacus,  as  a  condition  of  intercommunion,  the  renun- 
ciation of  the  wicked  title,  and  in  a  letter  to  Maurice  he  went 
so  far  as  to  declare,  that  "whosoever  calls  himself  universal  priest, 
or  desires  to  be  called  so,  was  the  forerunner  of  Antichrist"3 

bishops  put  together,  and  all  bishops  are  dimply  his  vicars,  as  he  himself  is 
the  vicar  of  Christ.    See  my  Greed*  of  Oftntfendkn^  L  151. 

1  See  the  letters  in  Lib.  V.  18-21  (Migne  HI.  738-751).  Bos  predecessor, 
Pelagius  IT.  (578-690),  had  already  strongly  denounced  the  assumption  of  the 
title  by  John,  and  at  the  same  time  disclaimed  it  for  himself,  while  yet  dearly 
asserting  the  universal  primacy  of  the  see  of  Peter.  See  Migne,  Tom.  LXXU- 
739,  and  Baronius,  ad  aim.  687. 

VL  60  ;  VH.  34,  40. 


8J2j».  VJLX.13:  tl^oavt€mconfdenferdicoquM  qwisquis  w  wiversafan  men 
doten  woo*,  vd  vocari  desidcnt,  in  datione  sua  Antickristom  praxwrrit,  guia  super- 
biendo  se  eoeteris  prceponit." 


1  5L  GEEGOBY  AND  THE  UNIVEBSAL  EPISCOPATE.  221 

In  opposition  to  these  high^onnding  epithets,  Gregory  called 
himself,  in  proud  humility,  "the  servant  of  the  servants  of  God.*1 
This  became  one  of  the  standing  titles  of  the  popes,  although  it 
sounds  like  irony  in  conjunction  with  their  astounding  claims. 

But  his  remonstrance  was  of  no  avail.  Neither  the  patriarch 
nor  the  emperor  obeyed  his  wishes.  Hence  he  hailed  a  change 
of  government  which  occurred  in  602  by  a  violent  revolution. 

When  Phocas,  an  ignorant,  red-haired,  beardless,  vulgar,  cruel 
and  deformed  upstart,  after  the  most  atrocious  murder  of  Mau- 
rice and  his  whole  family  (a  wife,  six  sons  and  three  daughters), 
ascended  the  throne,  Gregory  hastened  to  congratulate  him  and 
his  wife  Leontia  (who  was  not  much  better)  in  most  enthusiastic 
terms,  calling  on  heaven  and  earth  to  rejoice  at  their  accession, 
and  vilifying  the  memory  of  the  dead  emperor  as  a  tyrant,  from 
whose  yoke  the  church  was  now  fortunately  freed*2  This  is 
a  dark  spot,  but  the  only  really  dark  and  inexcusable  spot  in  the 
life  of  this  pontiff.  He  seemed  to  have  acted  in  this  case  on  the 
infamous  maimm  that  the  end  justifies  the  means.3  His  motive 


1  "Serws  servorum,  Dei."  See  Joa.  Diaconas,  Vti-  Greg.  IL  1,  and  Lib.  Dir 
urnus,  in  Migne,  Tom.  CV.  23.  Augustin  (Epixt.  217,  ad  Vtodem)  had  before 
subscribed  himself:  te  Serous  Gkristi,  etperipsum  serous  servorum  ejus"  Oomp. 
Matt.  xx.  26  ;  xxiii.  11.  Fulgentius  styled  himself  "Serwnm  Christi  famulus:' 
The  popes  ostentatiously  wash  the  beggars'  feet  at  St.  Peter's  in  holy  week,  in 
imitation  of  Christ's  example,  hut  expect  kings  and  queens  to  kiss  their  toe. 

*  His  letter  llad  Phocam  imperatorem,"  Ep.  XIIL  31  (HI.  1281  in  Migne) 
begins  with  "  Gfloria  in  excdsis  Deo,  gv&juxta  quod  scriptwn  est,  immvtat  tempora 
ettmtfertregna."  Comp.  his  letter*'  ad  ieon^ 

*  Gibbon  (ch.  46)  :  "As  alsubject  and  a  Christian,  it  was  the  duty  of  Gregory 
to  acquiesce  in  the  established  government;  but  the  joyfbl  applause  with  which 
he  salutes  the  fortune  of  the  assassin,  has  sullied,  with  indelible  disgrace,  the 
character  of  the  saint."    Milman  (II.  83):  "The  darkest  stain  on  the  name 
of  Gregory  is  his  cruel  and  unchristian  triumph  in  the  fall  of  the  Emperor 
Maurice—  his  bane  and  adulatory  praise  of  Phocas,  the  most  odious  and  san- 
guinary tyrant  who  had  ever  seized  the  throne  of  Constantinople.'9    Monta- 
lembert  says  (EL  116):  "This  is  the  only  stain  in  the  life  of  Gregory.    Wedo 
not  attempt  either  to  conceal  or  excuse  it  -  .  .  Among  the  greatest  and  holiest 
of  mortals,  virtue,  like  wisdom,  always  feJls  short  m  some  respect"    It  is  cha- 
ritable to  assume,  with  Baronius  and  other  Boman  Catholic  historians,  that 
Gregory,  although  usually  very  well  informed,  at  the  time  he  expressed  his 
extravagant  joy  at  the  elevation  of  Phocas,  knew  only  the  fcct,  and  not  the 


222  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

was  no  doubt  to  secure  the  protection  and  aggrandizement  of  the 
Eoman  see.  He  did  not  forget  to  remind  the  empress  of  the 
papal  proof-text :  "  Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  church,"  and  to  add :  "  I  do  not  doubt  that  you  will 
take  care  to  oblige  and  bind  him  to  you,  by  whom  you  desire  to 
be  loosed  from  your  sins." 

The  murderer  and  usurper  repaid  the  favor  by  taking  side 
with  the  pope  against  his  patriarch  (Cyriacus),  who  had  shown 
sympathy  with  the  unfortunate  emperor.  He  acknowledged  the 
Eoman  church  to  be  "the  head  of  all  churches."1  But  if  he 
ever  made  such  a  decree  at  the  instance  of  Boniface  III.,  who 
at  that  time  was  papal  nuntius  at  Constantinople,  he  must  have 
meant  merely  such  a  primacy  of  honor  as  had  been  before  con- 
ceded to  Eome  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  and  the  emperor 
Justinian.  At  all  events  the  disputed  title  continued  to  be  used 
by  the  patriarchs  and  emperors  of  Constantinople.  Phocas,  after 
a  disgraceful  reign  (602-610),  was  stripped  of  the  diadem  and 
purple,  loaded  with  chains,  insulted,  tortured,  beheaded  and 
cast  into  the  flames.  He  was  succeeded  by  Heraclius. 

In  this  whole  controversy  the  pope's  jealousy  of  the  patriarch 
is  very  manifest,  and  suggests  the  suspicion  that  it  inspired  the 
protest. 

Gregory  displays  in  his  correspondence  with  his  rival  a  sin- 
gular combination  of  pride  and  humility.  He  was  too  proud  to 

bloody  means  of  the  elevation.  The  same  ignorance  must  he  assumed  in  the 
case  of  his  flattering  letters  to  Branhilde,  the  profligate  and  vicious  fury  of 
France.  Otherwise  we  would  have  here  on  a  small  scale  an  anticipation  of 
the  malignant  joy  with  which  Gregory  XIII.  hailed  the  fearful  slaughter  of 
the  Huguenots. 

1  The  words  run  thus:  "SRc  [Phocas]  rogante  papa  Sonifado  MbM  sedem 
Romawz  et  apostoiiax  ecdesics  CAPTJT  ESSE  OMNIUM  EGCLESIARTTB^  quia  ecde&ia 
(^nstantmopoUtana  primam  se  omnium  ecdesiarum  wribdbat?  Paulus  Diaconus, 
De  Gest.  Lamb.  IV.,  cap.  7,  in  Muratori,  Jfcr.  ltd.,  1. 465.  Bat  the  authen- 
ticity of  this  report,  which  was  afterwards  frequently  copied,  is  doubtful.  It 
has  been  abused  by  controversialists  on  both  sides.  It  is  not  the  first  declara- 
tion of  the  Roman  primacy,  nor  is  it  a  declaration  of  an  exclusive  primacy,  nor 
an  abrogation  of  the  title  of  ''ecumenical  patriarch  "  on  the  part  of  the  bishop 
of  Constantinople.  Comp.  Greenwood,  vol.  II.  239  sqq. 


2  51.  GBEGOEY  AND  THE  UNIVERSAL  EPISCOPATE.  223 

concede  to  him  the  title  of  a  universal  bishop,  and  yet  too  hum- 
ble or  too  inconsistent  to  claim  it  for  himself.  His  arguments 
imply  that  he  would  have  the  best  right  to  the  title,  if  it  were 
not  wrong  in  itself.  His  real  opinion  is  perhaps  best  expressed 
in  a  letter  to  Eulogius  of  Alexandria.  He  accepts  all  the  com- 
pliments which  Eulogius  paid  to  him  as  the  successor  of  Peter, 
whose  very  name  signifies  firmness  and  solidity;  but  he  ranks 
Antioch  and  Alexandria  likewise  as  sees  of  Peter,  which  are 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  on  a  par  with  that  of  Rome,  so  that  the 
three,  as  it  were,  constitute  but  one  see.  He  ignores  Jerusalem. 
"The  see  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles  alone,"  he  says,  "has 
acquired  a  principality  of  authority,  which  is  the  see  of  one  only, 
though  in  three  places  (qwz  in  tribus  lotis  unius  est).  For  he 
himself  has  exalted  the  see  in  which  he  deigned  to  rest  and  to 
end  his  present  life  [Rome].  He  himself  adorned  the  see 
[Alexandria]  to  which  he  sent  his  disciple  [Mark]  as  evangelist. 
He  himself  established  the  see  in  which  he  sat  for  seven  years 
[Antioch].  Since,  then,  the  see  is  one,  and  of  one,  over  which 
by  divine  authority  three  bishops  now  preside,  whatever  good  I 
hear  of  you  I  impute  to  myself.  If  you  believe  anything  good 
of  me,  impute  this  to  your  own  merits ;  because  we  are  one  in 
Him  who  said:  'That  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  all  may  be  one  in  us9  (John 
xvii.  21)." ' 

"When  Eulogius,  in  return  for  this  exaltation  of  his  own 
see,  afterwards  addressed  Gregory  as  "universal  pope,"  he 
strongly  repudiated  the  title,  saying :  "  I  have  said  that  neither 
to  me  nor  to  any  one  else  (nee  miM,  nee  cuiquam  atteri)  ought 
you  to  write  anything  of  the  kind.  And  lo !  in  the  preface  of 
your  letter  you  apply  to  me,  who  prohibited  it,  the  proud  title 
of  universal  pope;  which  thing  I  beg  yvwr  most  sweet  Holiness 

1  Ep.  VII.  40  (Migne  III.  899).  This  parallel  between  the  three  great  sees 
of  Peter— a  hierarchical  tri-peisonality  in  unity  of  essence—seems  to  be  entirely 
original  with  Gregory,  and  was  never  used  afterwards  hy  a  Eoman  pontiff.  It 
is  fatal  to  the  sole  primacy  of  the  Eoman  chair  of  Peter,  and  this  is  the  very 


224  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-4049. 

to  do  no  more,  because  what  is  given  to  others  beyond  what  rea- 
son requires  is  subtracted  from  you.  I  do  not  esteem  that  an 
honor  by  which  I  know  my  brethren  lose  their  honor.  My 
honor  is  that  of  the  universal  Church.  My  honor  is  the  solid 
strength  of  my  brethren.  I  am  then  truly  honored  when  all 
and  each  are  allowed  the  honor  that  is  due  to  them.  For,  if 
your  Holiness  calls  me  universal  pope,  you  deny  yourself  to  be 
that  which  you  call  me  universally  [that  is,  you  own  yourself  to 
be  no  pope].  But  no  more  of  this :  away  with  words  which 
inflate  pride  and  wound  charity  I"  He  even  objects  to  the  ex- 
pression, "as'thou  hast  commanded,"  which  had  occurred  in  his 
correspondent's  letter.  "Which  word,  'commanded/  I  pray 
you  let  me  hear  no  more;  for  I  know  what  I  am,  and  what  you 
are:  in  position  you  are  my  brethren,  in  manners  you  are  my 
fathers.  I  did  not,  therefore,  command,  but  desired  only  to  in- 
dicate what  seemed  to  me  expedient/'1 

On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Gregory.,  while 
he  protested  in  the  strongest  terms  against  the  assumption  by 
the  Eastern  patriarchs  of  the  antichristian  and  blasphemous  title 
of  universal  bishop,  claimed  and  exercised,  as  far  as  he  had  the 
opportunity  and  power,  the  authority  and  oversight  over  the 
whole  church  of  Christ,  even  in  the  East.  "With  respect  to 
the  church  of  Constantinople/'  he  asks  in  one  of  his  letters, 
"who  doubts  that  it  is  subject  to  the  apostolic  see?"  And  in 
another  letter :  "  I  know  not  what  bishop  is  not  sulject  to  it,  if 
fault  is  found  in  him/'  "To  all  who  know  the  Gospels/'  he 
writes  to  emperor  Maurice,  "it  is  plain  that  to  Peter,  as  the 
prince  of  all  the  apostles,  was  committed  by  our  Lord  the  care 
of  the  whole  church  (totius  ecdesice  euro).  .  .  .  But  although 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  power  to  bind  and 
to  loose,  were  intrusted  to  him,  and  the  care  and  principality 
of  the  whole  church  (totius  ecdesite  cwra  el  prineipafas),  he  is 
not  called  universal  bishop;  while  my  most  holy  fellow-priest 
(vir  sanetissimus  eonsaeerdos  meus)  John  dares  to  call  himself 

30  (III.  933). 


2  52.  THE  WETTINGS  OP  GEEGOBY.  225 

universal  bishop.  I  am  compelled  to  exclaim:  0  teznpara,  0 
mores!"1 

We  have  no  right  to  impeach  Gregory*  s  sincerity.  But  he 
was  clearly  inconsistent  in  disclaiming  the  name,  and  yet  claim- 
ing the  thing  iteelf.  The  real  objection  is  to  the  pretension  of 
a  universal  episcopate,  not  to  lie  title.  If  we  concede  the  for- 
mer, the  latter  is  perfectly  legitimate.  And  such  universal  power 
had  already  been  claimed  by  Roman  pontifis  before  Gregory, 
such  as  Leo  L,  Felix,  Gelasius,  Hormisdas,  in  language  and  ads 
more  haughty  and  self-sufficient  than  his. 

No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  successors  of  Gregory,  less 
humble  and  more  consistent  than  he,  had  no  scruple  to  use 
equivalent  and  even  more  arrogant  titles  than  the  one  against 
which  he  so  solemnly  protested  with  the  warning:  "God  resist- 
eth  the  proud,  but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble.773  But  it  is  a 
very  remarkable  fact,  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  unfolding  of 
the  greatest  power  of  the  papacy  one  of  the  best  of  popes  should 
have  protested  against  the  antichristian  pride  and  usurpation  of 
the  system. 

§  52.  The  Writinffs  of  Gregory. 

Oomp.  the  second  part  of  LAD'S  biography,  pp.  811  sqq.,  and  ADOLF 
EBEBT:  GeschicMe  der  ChTiMwh-Latdnischcri  Literatur,  bis  sum 
Zettatter  Karls  der  Grossen.  Leipzig,  1874  sqq.,  vol.  I.  516  sqq. 

With  all  the  multiplicity  of  his  cares,  Gregory  found  time  for 
literary  labor.  His  books  are  not  of  great  literary  merit,  but 
were  eminently  popular  and  useful  for  the  clergy  of  the  middle 


theology  'was  based  upon  the  four  oecumenical  councils 
and  the  four  Gospels,  which  he  regarded  as  the  immovable 


.  20  (m.  745).    He  quotes  in  proof  the  peWexfe  of  popery,  John 
xxi.  17;  LnkemLSl;  Matt,  xvi  18. 

2  Such  titles  as  TfauenaKs  Epucapu*  (used  by  Bonifece  IIL,  a  year  after 
Gregory's  death),  Bw^fer  Max****,  Smm**  Porffa  Viearws  ChrM,  and 
even  "tp«i»  Dei  w  fern*  Tfcoms"  (Cbiic.  2Wi.  VL  Dertfmn.,  e.  1).  Fiwt 
Vicar  of  Peter,  then  Vicar  of  Chris t,  at  last  Vicar  of  God  Almighty! 


226  FOUKTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049- 

pillars  of  orthodoxy;  he  also  accepted  the  condemnation  of  the 
three  chapters  by  the  fifth  oecumenical  council.  He  was  a  mo- 
derate Augustinian,  but  with  an  entirely  practical,  unspeculative, 
uncritical^  traditional  and  superstitious  bent  of  mind.  His  de- 
struction of  the  Palatine  Library,  if  it  ever  existed,  is  now 
rejected  as  a  fable;  but  it  reflects  his  contempt  for  secular  and 
classical  studies  as  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  Christian  bishop. 
Yet  in  ecclesiastical  learning  and  pulpit  eloquence  he  had  no 
superior  in  his  age. 

Gregory  is  one  of  the  great  doctors  or  authoritative  fathers  of 
the  church.  His  views  on  sin  and  grace  are  almost  semi-Pela- 
gian. He  makes  predestination  depend  on  fore-knowledge; 
represents  the  fallen  nature  as  sick  only,  not  as  dead ;  lays  great 
stress  on  the  meritoriousness  of  good  works,  and  is  chiefly  re- 
sponsible for  the  doctrine  of  a  purgatorial  fire,  and  masses  for 
the  benefit  of  the  souls  in  purgatory. 

His  Latin  style  is  not  classical,  but  ecclesiastical  and  monkish; 
it  abounds  in  barbarisms ;  it  is  prolix  and  chatty,  but  occasionally 
sententious  and  rising  to  a  rhetorical  pathos,  which  he  borrowed 
from  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  following  are  his  works : 

1.  MdffTia  JlforaMa,  in  thirty-five  books.  This  large  work 
was  begun  in  Constantinople  at  the  instigation  of  Leander,  bishop 
of  Seville,  and  finished  in  Rome.  It  is  a  three-fold  exposition 
of  the  book  of  Job  according  to  its  historic  or  literal,  its  allego- 
rical, and  its  moral  meaning.1 

Being  ignorant  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages,  and  of 
Oriental  history  and  customs  (although  for  some  time  a  resident 
of  Constantinople),  Gregory  lacked  the  first  qualifications  for  a 
grammatical  and  historical  interpretation. 

The  allegorical  part  is  an  exegetical  curiosity:  he  reads  be- 

1  Ify.  missoria,  cap.  3  (ed.  Migne  I.  513) :  "  Primum  quidemfundmienta  histo- 
ries p<mimus;  deiande  per  signifcationem,  typicam  in  aartem  fdd  jabricam  mentis 
erigimus;  ad  ex6remum  quogueper  moraLitatis  gratiaan,  quasi  superducto  csdifidtm 
oolore  vestimus" 


§  52.  THE  WETTINGS  OF  GEEGOEY.  227 

tween  or  beneath  the  lines  of  that  wonderful  poem  the  history 
of  Christ  and  a  whole  system  of  theology  natural  and  revealed. 
The  names  of  persons  and  things,  the  numbers,  and  even  the 
syllables,  are  filled  with  mystic  meaning.  Job  represents  Christ ; 
his  wife  the  carnal  nature;  his  seven  sons  (seven  being  the 
number  of  perfection)  represent  the  apostles,  and  hence  the 
clergy;  his  three  daughters  the  three  classes  of  the  faithful  laity 
who  are  to  worship  the  Trinity;  his  friends  the  heretics;  the 
seven  thousand  sheep  the  perfect  Christians;  the  three  thousand 
camels  the  heathen  and  Samaritans;  the  five  hundred  yoke  of 
oxen  and  five  hundred  she-asses  again  the  heathen,  because  the 
prophet  Isaiah  says :  "  The  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass 
his  master's  crib;  but  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not 
consider." 

The  moral  sense,  which  Gregory  explains  last,  is  an  edifying 
homiletical  expansion  and  application,  and  a  sort  of  compend  of 
Christian  ethics. 

2.  Twenty-two  Homilies  on  Ezekiel,  delivered  in  Borne  du- 
ring the  siege  by  Agilulph,  and  afterwards  revised. 

3.  Forty  Homilies  on  the  Gospels  for  the  day,  preached  by 
Gregory  at  various  times,  and  afterwards  edited. 

4.  Liber  Reguke  Pastoralis,  in  four  parts.    It  is  a  pastoral 
theology,  treating  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  minis- 
terial office,  in  justification  of  his  reluctance  to  undertake  the 
burden  of  the  papal  dignity.    It  is  more  practical  than  Chrysos- 
tom's  "Priesthood"    It  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  translated  into  Greek  by  order  of  the  emperor 
Maurice,  and  into  Anglo-Saxon  by  King  Alfred,  and  given  to 
the  bishops  in  France  at  their  ordination,  together  with  the  book 
of  canons,  as  a  guide  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.    Gregory, 
according  to  the  spirit  of  his  age,  enjoins  strict  celibacy  even 
upon  sub-deacons.    But  otherwise  he  gives  most  excellent  advice 
suitable  to  all  times.  He  makes  preaching  one  of  the  chief  duties 
of  pastors,  in  the  discharge  of  which  he  himself  set  a  good  ex- 
ample.   He  warns  them  to  guard  against  the  besetting  sin  of 


228  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

pride  at  the  very  outset;  for  they  will  not  easily  learn  humility 
in  ajhigh  position.  They  should  preach  by  their  lives  as  well 
as  their  words.  "He  who,  by  the  necessity  of  his  position,  is 
required  to  speak  the  highest  things,  is  compelled  by  the  same 
necessity  to  exemplify  the  highest.  For  that  voice  best  pene- 
trates the  hearts  of  hearers  which  the  life  of  the  speaker  com- 
mends, because  what  he  commends  in  his  speech  he  helps  to 
practice  by  his  example."  He  advises  to  combine  meditation 
and  action.  "  Our  Lord,"  he  says,  "continued  in  prayer  on  the 
mountain,  but  wrought  miracles  in  the  cities;  showing  to  pastors 
that  while  aspiring  to  the  highest,  they  should  mingle  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  necessities  of  the  infirm.  The  more  kindly  cha- 
rity descends  to  the  lowest,  the  more  vigorously  it  recurs  to  the 
highest."  The  spiritual  ruler  should  never  be  so  absorbed  in 
external  cares  as  to  forget  the  inner  life  of  the  soul,  nor  neglect 
external  things  in  the  care  for  his  inner  life.  u  The  word  of 
doctrine  fails  to  penetrate  the  mind  of  the  needy,  unless  com- 
mended by  the  hand  of  compassion." 

5.  Four  books  of  Dialogues  on  the  lives  and  miracles  of  St. 
Benedict  of  Nursia  and  other  Italian  saints,  and  on  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  (593).    These  dialogues  between  Gregory  and 
the  Roman  archdeacon  Peter  abound  in  incredible  marvels  and 
visions  of  the  state  of  departed  souls.    He  acknowledges,  how- 
ever, that  he  knew  these  stories  only  from  hearsay,  and  defends 
his  recording  them  by  the  example  of  Mark  and  Luke,  who 
reported  the  gospel  from  what  they  heard  of  the  eye-witnesses. 
His  veracity,  therefore,  is  not  at  stake;  but  it  is  strange  that  a 
man  of  his  intelligence  and  good  sense  should  believe  such  gro- 
tesque and  childish  marvels.    The  Dialogues  are  the  chief  source 
of  the  mediaeval  superstitions  about  purgatory.    King  Alfred 
ordered  them  to  be  translated  into  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

6.  His  Epistles  (838  in  all)  to  bishops,  princes,  missionaries, 
and  other  persons  in  all  ports  of  Christendom,  give  us  the  best 
idea  of  his  character  and  administration,  and  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons.    They  treat  of  topics  of  theology!  morals, 


2  52.  THE  WEITINGS  OF  GBEGORY.  229 

politics,  diplomacy,  monasticism,  episcopal  and  papal  adminis- 
tration, and  give  us  the  best  insight  into  his  manifold  duties, 
cares,  and  sentiments. 

7.  The  Gregorian  Sacramentaiy  is  based  upon  the  older  Sac- 
ramentaries  of  Gelasius  and  Leo  L,  with  some  changes  in  the 
Canon  of  the  Mass.    His  assertion  that  in  the  celebration  of  the 
eucharist,  the  apostles  used  the  Lord's  Prayer  only  (solwmmodo\ 
has  caused  considerable  discussion.    Probably  he  meant  no  other 
prayer,  in  addition  to  the  words  of  institution,  which  he  took 
for  granted. 

8.  A  collection  of  antiphons  for  mass  (Liber  Antiphonarivs)* 
It  contains  probably  later  additions.    Several  other  works  of 
doubtful  authenticity,  and  nine  Latin  hymns  are  also  attributed 
to  Gregory.    They  are  in  the  metre  of  St.  Ambrose,  without 
the  rhyme,  except  the  "Rex  Christe,  factor  omnium39  (which  is 
very  highly  spoken  of  by  Luther).    They  are  simple,  devout, 
churchly,  elevated  in  thought  and  sentiment,  yet  without  poetic 
fire  and  vigor.    Some  of  them  as  "  Blest  Creator  of  the  Light" 
(Lads  Creator  optime),  "O  merciful  Creator,  hear"  (Audi,  beate 
Qynditor),  "Good  it  is  to  keep  the  fast"  (Cfarum  decus  jejunO), 
have  recently  been  made  familiar  to  English  readers  in  free 
translations  from  the  Anglo-Catholic  school.1    He  was  a  great 
ritualist  (hence  called  "Master  of  Ceremonies"),  but  with  con- 
siderable talent  for  sacred  poetry  and  music.   The  "Cantus  Gre* 
gorianus"  so  called  was  probably  a  return  from  the  artistic  and 
melodious  antiphonal  "Cantos  Ambrosianus"  to  the  more  an* 
cient  and  simple  mode  of  chanting.    He  founded  a  school  of 
singers,  which  became  a  nursery  of  similar  schools  in  other 
churches.2 

Some  other  writings  attributed  to  him,  as  an  Exposition  of 
the  First  Book  of  Kings,  and  an  allegorical  Exposition  of  the 
Canticles,  are  of  doubtful  genuineness. 

1  See  "Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern." 

1Comp.  BannLj,  Greg,  fa  Or.,  pp.  188-190;  Lao,  p.  262;  Eber^  L  51& 


230  FOUKTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

§  53.   The  Papacy  frwn  Gregory  I.  to  Gregory  II.    A.X>. 

604-715. 

The  successors  of  Gregory  I.  to  Gregory  II.  were,  with  few 
exceptions,  obscure  men,  and  ruled  but  a  short  time.  They  were 
mostly  Italians,  many  of  them  Romans;  a  few  were  Syrians, 
chosen  by  the  Eastern  emperors  in  the  interest  of  their  policy 
and  theology. 

Sabinianus  (604)  was  as  hard  and  avaricious  as  Gregory  was 
benevolent  and  liberal,  and  charged  the  famine  of  his  reign  upon 
the  prodigality  of  his  sainted  predecessor.  Boniface  III.  (606- 
607)  did  not  scruple  to  assume  the  title  of  "  universal  bishop," 
against  which  Gregory,  in  proud  humility,  had  so  indignantly 
protested  as  a  blasphemous  antichristian  assumption.  Boniface 
IV.  converted  the  Roman  Pantheon  into  a  Christian  church 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary  and  all  the  Martyrs  (608).  Ho- 
norius  I.  (625-638)  was  condemned  by  an  oecumenical  council 
and  by  his  own  successors  as  a  Monothelite  heretic ;  while  Mar- 
tin I.  (649-655)  is  honored  for  the  persecution  he  endured  in 
behalf  of  Hie  orthodox  doctrine  of  two  wills  in  Christ.  Under 
Gregory  II.  and  III.,  Germany  was  converted  to  Roman  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  popes  followed  the  missionary  policy  of  Gregory  and  the 
instinct  of  Roman  ambition  and  power.  Every  progress  of 
Christianity  in  the  "West  and  the  North  was  a  progress  of  the 
Roman  Church.  Augustin,  Boniface,  Ansgar  were  Roman  mis- 
sionaries and  pioneers  of  the  papacy.  As  England  had  been 
annexed  to  the  triple  crown  under  Gregory  I.,  so  France,  the 
Netherlands,  Germany  and  Scandinavia  were  annexed  under  his 
successors.  The  British  and  Scotch-Irish  independence  gave 
way  gradually  to  the  irresistible  progress  of  Roman  authority 
and  uniformity.  Priests,  noblemen  and  kings  from  all  parts  of 
the  West  were  visiting  Rome  as  the  capital  of  Christendom, 
and  paid  homage  to  the  shrine  of  the  apostles  and  to  the  living 
successor  of  the  Galilsean  fisherman. 


2  54.  FEOM  GKEGOEY  II.  TO  ZACHABIAS.  A.D.  715-741.  231 

But  while  the  popes  thus  extended  their  spiritual  dominion 
over  the  new  barbarous  races,  they  were  the  political  subjects  of 
the  Eastern  emperor  as  the  master  of  Italy,  and  could  not  be 
consecrated  without  his  consent.  They  were  expected  to  obey 
the  imperial  edicts  even  in  spiritual  matters,  and  were  subject 
to  arrest  and  exile.  To  rid  themselves  of  this  inconvenient 
dependence  was  a  necessary  step  in  the  development  of  the  ab- 
solute papacy.  It  was  effected  in  the  eighth  century  by  the  aid 
of  a  rising  Western  power.  The  progress  of  Mohammedanism 
and  its  encroachment  on  the  Greek  empire  likewise  contributed 
to  their  independence. 

§  54.  From  Gregory  II.  to  Zacharias.    A.  D.  715-741. 

Gregory  II.  (715-731)  marks  the  transition  to  this  new  state 
of  things.  He  quarreled  with  the  iconoclastic  emperor,  Leo 
the  Isaurian,  about  the  worship  of  images.  Under  his  pontifi- 
cate, Liutprand,1  the  ablest  and  mightiest  king  of  the  Lombards, 
conquered  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna,  and  became  master  of 
Italy. 

But  the  sovereignty  of  a  barbarian  and  once  Arian  power  was 
more  odious  and  dangerous  to  the  popes  than  that  of  distant 
Constantinople.  Placed  between  the  heretical  emperor  and  the 
barbarian  robber,  they  looked  henceforth  to  a  young  and  rising 
power  beyond  the  Alps  for  deliverance  and  protection.  The 
Franks  were  Catholics  from  the  time  of  their  conversion  under 
Clevis,  and  achieved  under  Charles  Martel  (the  Hammer)  a 
mighty  victory  over  the  Saracens  (732),  which  saved  Christian 
Europe  against  the  invasion  and  tyranny  of  Isl&m.  They  had 
thus  become  the  protectors  of  Latin  Christianity.  They  also 
lent  their  aid  to  Boniface  in  the  conversion  of  Germany. 

Gregory  III.  (731-741)  renewed  the  negotiations  with  the 
Franks,  begun  by  his  predecessor.  When  the  Lombards  again 

1  Or  Luitprand,  born  about  690,  died  744  There  is  also  a  Lombard  histo- 
rian of  that  name,  a  deaoou  of  the  cathedral  of  Pavia,  afterwards  bishop  of 
Cremona,  died  972. 


232  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

invaded  the  territory  of  Rome,  and  were  ravaging  by  fire  and 
sword  the  last  remains  of  the  property  of  the  church,  he  appealed 
in  piteous  and  threatening  tone  to  Charles  Martel,  who  had  in- 
herited from  his  father,  Pepin  of  Herstal,  the  mayoralty  of 
France,  and  was  the  virtual  ruler  of  the  realm.  "Close  not 
your  ears,"  he  says,  "against  our  supplications,  lest  St.  Peter 
close  against  you  the  gates  of  heaven."  He  sent  him  the  keys 
of  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter  as  a  symbol  of  allegiance,  and  offered 
him  the  titles  of  Patrician  and  Consul  of  Rome.1  This  was 
virtually  a  declaration  of  independence  from  Constantinople. 
Charles  Martel  returned  a  courteous  answer,  and  sent  presents 
to  Rome,  but  did  not  cross  the  Alps.  He  was  abhorred  by  the 
clergy  of  his  own  country  as  a  sacrilegious  spoiler  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  church  and  disposer  of  bishoprics  to  his  counts  and 
dukes  in  the  place  of  rightful  incumbents.2 

The  negotiations  were  interrupted  by  the  death  of  Charles 
Martel  Oct.  21,  741,  foUowed  by  that  of  Gregory  HI.,  Nov.  27 
of  the  same  year. 

§  55.  AUiance  of  the  Papacy  with  the  New  Monarchy  of  ihe 

Franks.    Pepin  and  the  Patoimmj  of  St.  Peter. 

A.D.  741-755. 

Pope  Zacharias  (741-752),  a  Greek,  by  foe  weight  of  his 
priestly  authority,  brought  Liutprand  to  terms  of  temporary 

1  Gibbon  actually  attributes  these  titles  to  Charles  Martel;  while  Bryce  (p. 
40)  thinks  that  they  were  first  given  to  Pepin.  Gregory  H.  had  already  (724) 
addressed  Charles  Martel  as  "Patricius"  (see  Migne,  Opera  Caroli  M.  II.  69). 
Gregory  ETL  sent  him  in  739  ipsas  sacratissimas  dame*  confessions  beati  Pefoi 
gwswbisadregrwm  dimisimus  (&  p.  66),  which  implies  the  transfer  of  civil 
authority  over  Borne. 

»  Milman  (Book  IV.,  ch.  9)  says  that  Dante,  the  faithful  recorder  of  popular 
Catholic  tradition,  adopts  the  condemnatory  legend  which  puts  Charles  "in 
the  lowest  pit  of  hell."  But  I  can  find  no  mention  of  him  in  Dante.  The 
Charles  Martel  ofParad.  VIIL  and  EL  IB  a  very  different  person,  a  king  of 
Hungary,  who  died  130L  See  Wittefc  Dante,  p.  667,  and  Carey's  note  on 
For.  Yin.  53.  On  the  relations  of  Charles  Martel  to  Bonifece,  see  Eettbergf 
cfe,  1. 306  sqq. 


I  55.  ALLIANCE  OF  THE  PAPACY  WITH  THE  FEANKS.  233 

submission.    The  Lombard  king  suddenly  paused  in  the  career 
of  conquest,  and  died  after  a  reign  of  thirty  years  (743). 

But  his  successor,  Astolph,  again  threatened  to  incorporate 
Rome  with  his  kingdom.  Zacharias  sought  the  protection  of 
Pepin  the  Short,1  the  Mayor  of  the  Palace,  son  of  Charles  Mar- 
fcel,  and  father  of  Charlemagne,  and  in  return  for  this  aid  helped 
him  to  the  crown  of  France.  This  was  the  first  step  towards 
the  creation  of  a  Western  empire  and  a  new  political  system  of 
Europe  with  the  pope  and  the  German  emperor  at  the  head. 

Hereditary  succession  was  not  yet  invested  with  that  religious 
sanctity  among  the  Teutonic  races  as  in  later  ages.  In  the  Jew- 
ish theocracy  unworthy  kings  were  deposed,  and  new  dynasties 
elevated  by  the  interposition  of  God's  messengers.  The  pope 
claimed  and  exercised  now  for  the  first  time  the  same  power. 
The  Mayor,  or  high  steward,  of  the  royal  household  in  France 
was  the  prime  minister  of  the  sovereign  and  the  chief  of  the 
official  and  territorial  nobility.  This  dignity  became  hereditary 
in  the  family  of  Pepin  of  Laudon,  who  died  in  639,  and  was 
transmitted  from  him  through  six  descents  to  Pepin  the  Short, 
a  gallant  warrior  and  an  experienced  statesman.  He  was  on 
good  terms  with  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany  and  arch- 
bishop of  Mayence,  who,  according  to  the  traditional  view,  acted 
as  negotiator  between  him  and  the  pope  in  this  political  coup 


Childeric  IIL,  the  last  of  the  hopelessly  degenerate  Merovin- 
gian line,  was  the  mere  shadow  of  a  monarch,  and  forced  to 
retire  into  a  monastery.  Pepin,  the  ruler  in  fact,  now  assumed 
the  name,  was  elected  at  Soissons  (March,  752)  by  the  acclama- 
tion and  dash  of  arms  of  the  people,  and  anointed,  like  the 
kings  of  Israel,  with  holy  oil,  by  Boniface  or  some  other  bishop, 

1  Or  Pipin,  Pippin,  Pippinus.    The  last  is  the  spelling  in  his  documents. 

2  Eettberg,  however  (I.  385  sqq.)>  disconnects  Boniface  from  all  participation 
in  the  elevation  and  coronation  of  Pepin,  and  represents  him  as  being  rather 
opposed  to  it.    He  argues  from  the  silence  of  some  annalists,  and  from  the  im- 
probability that  the  pope  should  have  repeated  the  consecration  if  it  had  been 
previously  performed  by  his  legate. 


234  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590  TO  1049. 

and  two  years  after  by  the  pope  himself,  who  had  decided  that 
the  lawful  possessor  of  the  royal  power  may  also  lawfully  assume 
the  royal  title.  Since  that  time  he  called  himself  "  by  the  grace 
of  God  king  of  the  Franks."  The  pope  conferred  on  him  the 
title  of  "Patrician  of  the  Romans"  (Pairiems  JZomanvnm), 
which  implies  a  sort  of  protectorate  over  the  Eoman  church, 
and  civil  sovereignty  over  her  territory.  For  the  title  "  Patri- 
cian," which  was  introduced  by  Constantine  the  Great,  signified 
the  highest  rank  next  to  that  of  the  emperor,  and  since  the 
sixth  century  was  attached  to  the  Byzantine  Viceroy  of  Italy. 
On  the  other  hand,  this  elevation  and  coronation  was  made  the 
basis  of  papal  superiority  over  the  crowns  of  France  and 
Germany. 

The  pope  soon  reaped  the  benefit  of  his  favor.  When  hard 
pressed  again  by  the  Lombards,  he  called  the  new  king  to 
his  aid. 

Stephen  III.,  who  succeeded  Zacharias  in  March,  752,  and 
ruled  till  757,  visited  Pepin  in  person,  and  implored  him  to 
enforce  the  restoration  of  the  domain  of  St.  Peter.  He  anointed 
Tiirn  again  at  St.  Denys,  together  with  his  two  sons,  and  pro- 
mised to  secure  the  perpetuity  of  his  dynasty  by  the  fearful 
power  of  the  interdict  and  excommunication.  Pepin  accompa- 
nied him  back  to  Italy  and  defeated  the  Lombards  (754). 
When  the  Lombards  renewed  the  war,  the  pope  wrote  letter 
upon  letter  to  Pepin,  admonishing  and  commanding  him  in  the 
Dame  of  Peter  and  the  holy  Mother  of  God  to  save  the  city  of 
Borne  from  the  detested  enemies,  and  promising  him  long  life 
and  the  most  glorious  mansions  in  heaven,  if  he  speedily  obeyed. 
To  such  a  height  of  blasphemous  assumption  had  the  papacy 
risen  already  as  to  identify  itself  with  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
and  to  claim  to  be  the  dispenser  of  temporal  prosperity  and 
eternal  salvation. 

Pepin  crossed  the  Alps  again  with  his  army,  defeated  the 
Lombards,  and  bestowed  the  conquered  territory  upon  the  pope 
(755).  He  declared  to  the  ambassadors  of  the  East  who  de- 


2  55.  ALLIANCE  OP  THE  PAPACY  WITH  THE  FRANKS.  235 

manded  the  restitution  of  Eavenna  and  its  territory  to  the 
Byzantine  empire,  that  his  sole  object  in  the  war  was  to  show 
his  veneration  for  St.  Peter.  The  new  papal  district  embraced 
the  Exarchate  and  the  Pentapolis,  East  of  the  Apennines,  with 
the  cities  of  Ravenna,  Rimini,  Pesaro,  Fano,  Cesena,  Sinigaglia, 
lesi,  Forlimpopoli,  Forli,  Montefeltro,  Acerra,  Monte  di  Lucano, 
Serra,  San  Marino,  Bobbio,  Urbino,  Cagli,  Luciolo,  Gubbio, 
Comachio,  and  Narni.1 

This  donation  of  Pepin  is  the  foundation  of  "  the  Patrimony 
of  St.  Peter."  The  pope  was  already  in  possession  of  tracts  of 
land  in  Italy  and  elsewhere  granted  to  the  church.  But  by  this 
gift  of  a  foreign  conqueror  he  became  a  temporal  sovereign  over 
a  large  part  of  Italy,  while  claiming  to  be  the  successor  of  Peter 
who  had  neither  silver  nor  gold,  and  the  vicar  of  Christ  who 
said :  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  The  temporal  power 
made  the  papacy  independent  in  the  exercise  of  its  jurisdiction, 
but  at  the  expense  of  its  spiritual  character.  It  provoked  a  long 
conflict  with  the  secular  power  ;  it  involved  it  in  the  political 
interests,  intrigues  and  wars  of  Europe,  and  secularized  the 
church  and  the  hierarchy.  Dante,  who  shared  the  mediaeval 
error  of  dating  the  donation  of  Pepin  back  to  Constantine  the 
Great/  gave  expression  to  this  view  in  the  famous  lines : 

"Ah,  Constantine!  of  how  much  ill  was  mother, 
Not  thy  conversion,  hut  that  marriage-dower 
Which  the  first  wealthy  Father  took  from  thee."3 

1  This  is  the  enumeration  of  Baronius  ad  ann.  755.    Others  define  the  extent 
differently.    Comp.  Wiltsch,  Kirchl.  Geographic  und  Stotistik,  I  pp.  246  sqq. 

8  Constantine  bestowed  upon  the  pope  a  portion  of  the  Lateran  palace  for  his 
residence,  and  upon  the  church  the  right  to  hold  real  estate  and  to  receive  he- 
quests  of  landed  property  from  individuals.    This  is  the  slender  foundation  for 
the  fable  of  the  Donatio  Constantini. 

9  Inferno  xix.  115-118 : 

"  AM  Costantin,  di  quanto  malfu,  mofre, 
Non  la  tua  conversion,  ma  guetta  dote, 
Che  da  te  press  ilprimo  ricco  pafrc  /" 


236  POUJftTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

Yet  Dante  places  Constantine,  who  "from  good  intent  pro- 
duced evil  fruit/'  in  heaven ;  where 

"  Now  he  knows  how  all  the  ill  deduced 
From  his  good  action  is  not  harmful  to  him, 
Although  the  world  thereby  may  he  destroyed." 
And  he  speaks  favorably  of  Charlemagne's  intervention  in  be- 
half of  the  pope : 

"  And  when  the  tooth  of  Lombardy  had  bitten 
The  Holy  Church,  then  underneath  its  wings 
Did  Charlemagne  victorious  succor  her." 1 

The  policy  of  Pepin  was  followed  by  Charlemagne,  the  Ger- 
man, and  Austrian  emperors,  and  modern  French  rulers  who 
interfered  in  Italian  affairs,  now  as  allies,  now  as  enemies,  until 
the  temporal  power  of  the  papacy  was  lost  under  its  last  pro- 
tector, Napoleon  III.,  who  withdrew  his  troops  from  Borne  to 
fight  against  Germany,  and  by  his  defeat  prepared  the  way  for 
Victor  Emanuel  to  take  possession  of  Borne,  as  the  capital  of 
free  and  united  Italy  (1870).  Since  that  time  the  pope  who  a 
few  weeks  before  had  proclaimed  to  the  world  his  own  infalli- 
bility in  all  matters  of  faith  and  morals,  is  confined  to  the  Vati- 
can, but  with  no  diminution  of  his  spiritual  power  as  the  bishop 
of  bishops  over  two  hundred  millions  of  souls. 

§  56.  Charles  the  Great.    A.D.  768-814. 

SOURCES. 

BEATI  CAHOU  MAONI  Opera  omnia.  2  vols.  In  Migne's  Patrol*  Lot. 
Tom.  97  and  98.  The  first  vol.  contains  the  Codex  Diplomaticus, 
Capitularia,  and  Privilegia;  the  second  vol.,  the  Codex  Carolinus, 
the  Libri  Carolini  (on  the  image  controversy),  the  Epistolse,  Car- 
mina,  etc. 

L  The  Letters  of  CHAELES,  of  EnrBULED,  and  of  ALCUDST.  Also  the  letters 
of  the  POPES  to  Charles  and  his  two  predecessors,  which  he  had  col- 
lected, and  which  are  called  the  Codex  CfaroKnus,  ed.  by  Muratori, 
Cenni,  ad  Migne  (Tom.  98,  pp.  10  sqq.). 

2.  The  Capitularies  and  Laws  of  Charlemagne,  contained  in  the  first  vol. 
of  the  Leges  in.  the  Hon.  Germ.,  ed.  by  PEBTZ,  and  in  the  Collections 
of  BAUJZIUB  and  MIONE. 
MtorocKw  XX.  57-60 ;  VL  94-97.    Longfellow's  translation. 


J  56.  CEAELES  THE  GBEAT.    A.  D.  768-814  237 

3.  Annals.    The  Armales  Lawrissenses  Majores  (probably  the  official  chro- 

nicle of  the  court)  from  788  to  813;  the  Annaks  Mnhardi,  written 
after  829;  the  Annales  Petamani,  Laureshamenses,  MoseUam,  and 
others,  more  of  local  than  general  value.  All  in  the  first  and  second 
vol.  of  PERTZ,  Monumenta  Germanica  hist.  Script. 

4.  Biographies:  EESTHAED  or  EGRNHABD  (b.  770,  educated  at  FuldX 

private  secretary  of  Charlemagne,  afterwards  Benedictine  monk)  - 
Vita  Caroli  Imperaioris  (English  translation  by  S.  S.  Turner,  New 
York,  1880).  A  true  sketch  of  what  Charles  was  by  an  admiring  and 
loving  hand  in  almost  classical  Latin,  and  after  the  manner  of 
Sueton's  Lives  of  the  Eoman  emperors.  It  marks,  as  Ad.  Ebert  says 
(II.  95),  the  height  of  the  classical  studies  of  the  age  of  Charlemagne. 
Milman  (IL  508)  calls  it  "the  best  historic  work  which  had  appeared 
in  the  Latin  language  for  centuries." — POETA  SAXO:  Annales  de 
Gestis  Caroli,  from  the  end  of  the  ninth  century.  An  anonymous 
monk  of  St.  Gall:  De  Gestis  Caroli,  about  the  same  time.  In  PEKTZ, 
1.  <?.,  and  JAFFE'S  Monumenta  CaroUna  (BibL  Ber.  Germ.,  T.  IV.), 
also  in  MIGNE,  Tom.  L,  Op.  CaroU. 

Comp.  on  the  sources  ABEL'S  JahrbUcher  de*  Frank.  Rdchs  (Berlin,  1866) 
and  WATTESHBACH'S  GeschichtsgueUen  im  MtielaUer  (Berlin,  1858; 
4th  ed.  1877-78, 2  vols.) 

IiITEBATUBB. 

X  G.  WALCH:  Historic,  Cbnonisationis  Caroli  M.    Jen.,  1750. 

PUTTEK  :  De  Instauratione  Imp.  Rom-    Gott.,  1766. 

GAUtLARD :  Histoire  de  Charlemagne.    Paris,  1784, 4  vols.  sec4  ed.  1819* 

GIBBON :  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Eoman  Empire.    Oh.  49. 

J.  EULECTDORF:  Die  Karolinger  und  die  Hierarchie  ihrer  JZeHL    Essen., 

1838,  2  vols. 
HEGEWISCH  :  Oeschichte  der  Regierung  Kaiser  Karls  des  Or.  Hamb,,  1791. 

DEPPOLT  :  Leben  K.  Karls  des  Or.    Tub.,  1810. 

G.  P.  B.  JAMES:  The  ffistory  of  Charlemagne.    London,  2nd  ed.  1847. 
BlHB:  Gesch.  der  rbm.  IM.  im  Karoling.  Zeitalter.    Carlsrahe,  1840* 
GFBOREB:  (?e»cA*cA^  (^^aro^er.  Freiburg  i  B.,  1848, 2  vols. 
CAPEFIGTJB:  Charlemagne.    Paris,  1842, 2  vols. 
WAENKONia^GEBABD:  JKst  des  GaroKngians.  Brnx.  and  Paris,  1862, 

2  vols. 

WAITZ:  Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte,  vols.  IIL  and  IV. 
W.  GlBSBBBBCBCT:  OescMchte  der  deutschen  Kaiserz&L    Braunschwdg, 

1863  sqq.  (3rd  ed.).    Bd.  L,  pp.  106  sqq. 
BOLLINGEB:  Kaiserthum  Karl*  des  Grossen,  in  the  Munchener  JERsf. 

Jahrbuch  for  1865. 
GASTOIST:  Histoire  poetique  de  Charlemagne.    Paris,  1865. 

:  Kurlder  Or.  md  tern*  Ze&    Munster,  1868. 


238  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

ABEL  :  Jahrbucher  des  FranJdschen  Edchs  unter  Karl  d.  Grossen.  Berlin, 
1866. 

W  YSS  :  Karl  der  Grosse  als  Gesetzgeber.    Zurich,  1869. 

RBTTBEBG:  Kirchengeschichte  Deutschlands,  I.  419  sqq.,  H.  382  sqq. 

ALPHONSE  VETATTLT  :  Charlemagne.  Tours,  1877  (556  pp.).  With  fine 
illustrations. 

L-  STACKE:  Deutsche  Geschichte.  Leipzig,  1880.  Bd.  1. 169  sqq.  With 
illustrations  and  maps. 

Comp.  also  MILMAK:  Latin  Christianity,  Book  IV.,  ch.  12,  and  Book  V.. 
ch.  1 ;  AD.  EBEBT  :  Geschichte  der  Literatur  des  Mittelalters  im  Abend- 
lande  (1880),  vol.  H.  3-108.  Of  French  writers,  GUIZOT,  and  MAR- 
TIN, in  their  Histories  of  France ;  also  PARKE  GODWIN,  JEKstory  of 
Irance,  chs.  xvi.  and  xviL  (vol.  1. 410  sqq.). 

With  the  death  of  Pepin  the  Short  (Sept.  24,  768),  the  king- 
dom of  France  was  divided  between  his  two  sons,  Charles  and 
Carloman,  the  former  to  rule  in  the  Northern,  the  latter  in  the 
Southern  provinces.  After  the  death  of  his  weaker  brother  (771) 
Charles,  ignoring  the  claims  of  his  infant  nephews,  seized  the 
sole  reign  and  more  than  doubled  its  extent  by  his  conquests* 

CHARACTER  AND  AIM  OF  CHARLEMAGNE. 

This  extraordinary  man  represents  the  early  history  of  both 
France  and  Germany  which  afterwards  divided  into  separate 
streams,  and  commands  the  admiration  of  both  countries  and 
nations.  His  grand  ambition  was  to  unite  all  the  Teutonic  and 
Latin  races  on  the  Continent  under  his  temporal  sceptre  in  close 
union  with  the  spiritual  dominion  of  the  pope ;  in  other  words, 
to  establish  a  Christian  theocracy,  coextensive  with  the  Latin 
church  (exclusive  of  the  British  Isles  and  Scandinavia).  He 
has  been  called  the  "  Moses  of  the  middle  age,"  who  conducted 
the  Germanic  race  through  the  desert  of  barbarism  and  gave  it  a 
new  code  of  political,  civil  and  ecclesiastical  laws.  He  stands  at 
the  head  of  the  new  Western  empire,  as  Constantine  the  Great 
had  introduced  the  Eastern  empire,  and  he  is  often  called  the  new 
Constantine,  but  is  as  far  superior  to  him  as  the  Latin  empire 
was  to  the  Greek.  He  was  emphatically  a  man  of  Providence. 

Charlemagne,  or  Karl  der  Grosse,  towers  high  above  iihe 


I  56.  CHAELES  THE  GEEAT.    A.D.  768-814.  239 

crowned  princes  of  his  age,  and  is  the  greatest  as  well  as  the  first 
of  the  long  line  of  German  emperors  from  the  eighth  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  He  is  the  only  prince  whose  greatness  has 
been  inseparably  blended  with  his  French  name.1  Since  Julius 
Caesar  history  had  seen  no  conqueror  and  statesman  of  such  com- 
manding genius  and  success ;  history  after  him  produced  only 
two  military  heroes  that  may  be  compared  with  him,  Frederick 
II.  of  Prussia,  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte  (who  took  him  and 
Caesar  for  his  models),  but  they  were  far  beneath  him  in 
religious  character,  and  as  hostile  to  the  church  as  he  was 
friendly  to  it.  His  lofty  intellect  shines  all  the  more  brightly 
from  the  general  ignorance  and  barbarism  of  his  age.  He  rose 
suddenly  like  a  meteor  in  dark  midnight.  We  do  not  know 
even  the  place  and  date  of  his  birth,  nor  the  history  of  his 
youth  and  education.2 

HIS  REIGN. 

His  life  is  filled  with  no  less  than  fifty-three  military  cam- 
paigns conducted  by  himself  or  his  lieutenants,  against  the 
Saxons  (18  campaigns),  Lombards  (5),  Aquitanians,  Thuringians, 
Bavarians,  Avars  or  Huns,  Danes,  Slaves,  Saracens,  and  Greeks. 
His  incessant  activity  astonished  his  subjects  and  enemies.  He 
seemed  to  be  omnipresent  in  his  dominions,  which  extended  from 
the  Baltic  and  the  Elbe  in  the  North  to  the  Ebro  in  the  South, 
from  the  British  Channel  to  Koine  and  even  to  the  Straits  ot 
Messina,  embracing  France,  Germany,  Hungary,  the  greater  part 
of  Italy  and  Spain.  His  ecclesiastical  domain  extended  over 

1  Joseph  de  Maistre:  *'  Cet  hwnme  est  si  grand  gue  la  grandeur  a  pfnttre  son 


n 


1  "It  would  befblly,"  says  Ifeinhard  (ch.4),  "to  write  a  word  about  the  birth 
and  infancy  or  even  the  boyhood  of  Charles,  for  nothing  has  ever  been  written 
on  the  subject,  and  there  is  no  one  alive  who  can  give  information  about  it." 
His  birth  is  usually  assigned  to  April  2,  742,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle ;  but  the 
legend  makes  him  the  child  of  illegitimate  love,  who  grew  up  wild  as  a  miller's 
son  in  Bavaria.  Hig  name  is  mentioned  only  twice  before  he  assumed  the 
reins  of  government,  once  at  a  court  reception  given  by  his  father  to  pope 
Stephen  II.,  and  once  as  a  witness  in  the  Aquitanian  campaigns. 


240  FOTJETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

twenty-two  archbishoprics  or  metropolitan  sees,  Rome,  Ravenna, 
Milan,  ITriuli  (Aquileia),  Grado,  Cologne,  Mayence,  Salzburg, 
Treves,  Sens,  Besan^on,  Lyons,  Eouen,  Rheims,  Axles,  Vienna, 
Moutiers-en-Tarantaise,  Ivredun,  Bordeaux,  Tours,  Bonrges, 
Narbonne.1  He  had  no  settled  residence,  bat  spent  much  time 
on  the  Rhine,  at  Ingelheim,  Mayence,  Nymwegen,  and  especially 
at  Aix-larChapelle  on  account  of  its  baths.  He  encouraged 
trade,  opened  roads,  and  undertook  to  connect  the  Main  and  the 
Danube  by  canal.  He  gave  his  personal  attention  to  things 
great  and  small.  He  introduced  a  settled  order  and  unity  of 
organization  in  his  empire,  at  the  expense  of  the  ancient  freedom. 
and  wild  independence  of  the  German  tribes,  although  he  con- 
tinued to  hold  every  year,  in  May,  the  general  assembly  of  the 
freemen  (Maifeld).  He  secured  Europe  against  future  heathen 
and  Mohammedan  invasion  and  devastation.  He  was  universally 
admired  or  feared  in  his  age.  The  Greek  emperors  sought  his 
alliance;  hence  the  Greek  proverb,  "Have  the  Franks  for 
your  friends,  but  not  for  your  neighbors."  The  Caliph  Haroun- 
al-Raschid,  the  mightiest  ruler  in  the  East,  sent  from  Bagdad  an 
embassy  to  him  with  precious  gifts.  But  he  esteemed  a  good 
sword  more  than  gold.  He  impressed  the  stamp  of  his  genius 
and  achievements  upon  the  subsequent  history  of  Germany  and 
]?ranee. 

APPEABASTCE  AND  HABITS  OF 


Charles  had  a  commanding,  and  yet  winning  presence.  Hia 
physique  betrayed  the  greatness  of  his  mind.  He  was  tall, 
strongly  built  and  well  proportioned.  His  height  was  seven 
times  the  length  of  his  foot.  He  had  large  and  animated  eyes,  a 
long  nose,  a  cheerful  countenance  and  an  abundance  of  fine  hair. 
"His  appearance/'  says  Eginhard,  "was  always  stately  and  dig- 
nified, whether  he  was  standing  or  sitting;  although  his  neck 

1  According  to  the  enrnneratTon  of  Egintard  (du  33),  who,  however,  gives 
only21,omittiiigNarl)oime,  Charles  bequeathed  (me^Mrdof  histreafloreand 


\  56.  CHAELES  THE  GEEAT.    A.D.  768-814.  241 

was  thick  and  somewhat  short,  and  his  belly  rather  prominent; 
but  the  symmetry  of  the  rest  of  his  body  concealed  these  defects. 
His  gait  was  firm,  his  whole  carriage  manly,  and  his  voice  clear, 
but  not  so  strong  as  his  size  led  one  to  expect."1 

He  was  naturally  eloquent,  and  spoke  with  great  clearness  and 
force.  He  was  simple  in  his  attire,  and  temperate  in  eating  and 
drinking ;  for,  says  Eginhard,  "  he  abominated  drunkenness  in 
anybody,  much  more  in  himself  and  those  of  his  household.  He 
rarely  gave  entertainments,  only  on  great  feast  days,  and  these  to 
large  numbers  of  people."  He  was  fond  of  muscular  exercise, 
especially  of  hunting  and  swimming,  and  enjoyed  robust  health 
till  the  last  four  years  of  his  life,  when  he  was  subject  to  fre- 
quent fevers.  During  his  meals  he  had  extracts  from  August- 
ine's "  City  of  God"  (his  favorite  book),  and  stories  of  olden 
times,  read  to  him.  He  frequently  gave  audience  while  dressing, 
without  sacrifice  of  royal  dignity.  He  was  kind  to  the  poor, 
and  a  liberal  almsgiver. 

HIS  ZEAL  FOB  EDUCATION. 

His  greatest  merit  is  his  zeal  for  education  and  religion.  He 
was  familiar  with  Latin  from  conversation  rather  than  books,  he 
understood  a  little  Greek,  and  in  his  old  age  he  began  to  learn 
the  art  of  writing  which  his  hand  accustomed  to  the  sword  had 
neglected.  He  highly  esteemed  his  native  language,  caused  a 
German  grammar  to  be  compiled,  and  gave  German  names  to  the 
winds  and  to  the  months.2  He  collected  the  ancient  heroic  songs 
of  the  German  minstrels.  He  took  measures  to  correct  the  Latin 
Version  of  the  Scriptures,  and  was  interested  in  theological  ques- 
tions. He  delighted  in  cultivated  society.  He  gathered  around 
him  divines,  scholars,  poets,  historians,  mostly  Anglo-Saxons, 

1  The  magnificent  portrait  of  Charles  by  Albrecht  Durer  is  a  fancy  picture, 
and  not  sustained  by  the  oldest  representations.  V&ault  gives  several  portraits, 
and  discusses  them,  p.  540. 

*  Wwtermmat  for  January,  Hwnimg  for  February,,  Lena  for  March,  Osfcr- 
monot  for  April,  etc.  See  Eginhard,  ch.  29. 


242  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

among  whom  Alcuin  was  the  chief.  He  founded  the  palace 
school  and  other  schools  in  the  convents,  and  visited  them  in 
person.  The  legend  makes  him  the  founder  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  which  is  of  a  much  later  date.  One  of  his  laws  enjoins 
general  education  upon  all  male  children. 

HIS  PIETY. 

Charles  was  a  firm  believer  in  Christianity  and  a  devout  and 
regular  worshipper  in  the  church,  "going  morning  and  evening, 
even  after  nightfall,  besides  attending  mass."  He  was  very 
liberal  to  the  clergy.  He  gave  them  tithes  throughout  the 
empire,  appointed  worthy  bishops  and  abbots,  endowed  churches 
and  built  a  splendid  cathedral  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  which  he 
was  buried. 

His  respect  for  the  clergy  culminated  in  his  veneration  for  the 
bishop  of  Rome  as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.  "  He  cherished 
the  church  of  St.  Peter  the  apostle  at  Rome  above  all  other  holy 
and  sacred  places,  and  filled  its  treasury  with  a  vast  wealth  of 
gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones.  He  sent  great  and  countless 
gifts  to  the  popes ;  and  throughout  his  whole  reign  the  wish  he 
had  nearest  at  heart  was  to  re-establish  the  ancient  authority  of 
the  city  of  Rome  under  his  care  and  by  his  influence,  and  to 
defend  and  protect  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  to  beautify  and 
enrich  it  out  of  his  own  store  above  all  other  churches."1 

HIS  VICES. 

Notwithstanding  his  many  and  great  virtues,  Charles  was  by 
no  means  so  pure  as  the  poetry  and  piety  of  the  church  repre- 
sented him,  and  far  from  deserving  canonization.  He  sacrificed 
thousands  of  human  beings  to  his  towering  ambition  and  passion 
for  conquest.  He  converted  the  Saxons  by  force  of  arms ;  he  waged 
for  thirty  years  a  war  of  extermination  against  them ;  he  wasted 
their  territory  with  fire  and  sword;  he  crushed  out  their  indepen- 
dence; he  beheaded  in  cold  blood  four  thousand  five  hundred 
prisoners  in  one  day  at  Verden  on  the  Aller  (782),  and  when 

1  Eginliard,  ch.  27. 


I  56.  CHARLES  THE  GEEAT.    A.D.  768-814,  243 

these  proud  and  faithless  savages  finally  surrendered,  he  removed 
10,000  of  their  families  from  their  homes  on  the  banks  of  the 
Elbe  to  different  parts  of  Germany  and  Gaul  to  prevent  a  future 
revolt.  It  was  indeed  a  war  of  religion  for  the  annihilation  of 
heathenism,  but  conducted  on  the  Mohammedan  principle :  sub- 
mission to  the  faith,  or  death.  This  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  which  recognizes  only  the  moral  means  of  persuasion 
and  conviction.1 

The  most  serious  defect  in  his  private  character  was  his  incon- 
tinence and  disregard  of  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie.  In 
this  respect  he  was  little  better  than  an  Oriental  despot  or  a 
Mohammedan  Caliph.  He  married  several  wives  and  divorced 
them  at  his  pleasure.  He  dismissed  his  first  wife  (unknown  by 
name)  to  marry  a  Lombard  princess,  and  he  repudiated  her 
within  a  year.  After  the  death  of  his  fifth  wife  he  contented 
himself  with  three  or  four  concubines.  He  is  said  even  to  have 
encouraged  his  own  daughters  in  dissolute  habits  rather  than 
give  them  in  marriage  to  princes  who  might  become  competitors 
for  a  share  in  the  kingdom,  but  he  had  them  carefully  educated. 
It  is  not  to  the  credit  of  the  popes  that  they  never  rebuked  him 
for  this  vice,  while  with  weaker  and  less  devoted  monarchs  they 
displayed  such  uncompromising  zeal  for  the  sanctity  of  marriage.2 

HIS  DEATH  AND  BTTBIAL. 

The  emperor  died  after  a  short  illness,  and  after  receiving  the 
holy  communion,  Jan.  28,  814,  in  the  71st  year  of  his  age,  and 
the  47th  of  his  reign,  and  was  buried  on  the  same  day  in  the 

1  Bossuet  justified  all  his  conquests  because  they  were  an  extension  of  Chris* 
tianity.  u  Les  conquStes  prodigi&uses,"  he  says,  "fuarent  la  dHatation  dv,  rkgne  de 
Dieu,  etUse  moutra  trks  chretien  dans  toutes  ses  ceuvres." 

*  Pope  Stephen  IEE.  protested,  indeed,  in  the  most  violent  language  against 
the  second  marriage  of  Charles  with  Desiderata,  a  daughter  of  the  king  of  Lorn- 
hardy,  hut  not  on  the  ground  of  divorce  from  his  first  wife,  which  would  have 
furnished  a  very  good  reason,  hut  from  opposition  to  a  union  with  the  "per- 
fidious, leprous,  and  fetid  brood  of  the  Lombards,  a  brood  hardly  reckoned 
human."  Charles  married  the  princess,  to  the  delight  of  his  mother,  hut  repu- 
diated her  the  next  year  and  sent  her  back  to  her  father.  SeeMilman,Bk.iV-f 
ch.  12  (n.  439). 


244  FOUBTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

cathedral  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  "amid  the  greatest  lamentations  of 
the  people/'1  Very  many  omens,  adds  Eginhard  (ch.  32),  had 
portended  his  approaching  end,  as  he  had  recognized  himself. 
Eclipses  both  of  the  sun  and  the  moon  were  very  frequent  during 
the  last  three  years  of  his  life,  and  a  black  spot  was  visible  on 
the  sun  for  seven  days.  The  bridge  over  the  Ehine  at  Mayence, 
which  he  had  constructed  in  ten  years,  was  consumed  by  fire ;  the 
palace  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  frequently  trembled ;  the  basilica  was 
struck  by  lightning,  the  gilded  ball  on  the  roof  shattered  by  a 
thunderbolt  and  hurled  upon  the  bishop's  house  adjoining;  and 
the  word  Prinoeps  after  Karolus  inscribed  on  an  arch  was 
effaced  a  few  months  before  his  decease.  "  But  Charles  despised, 
or  affected  to  despise,  all  these  things  as  having  no  reference 
whatever  to  him." 

THE  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  POETJRY. 

The  heroic  and  legendary  poetry  of  the  middle  ages  represents 
Charles  as  a  giant  of  superhuman  strength  and  beauty,  of  enor- 
mous appetite,  with  eyes  shining  like  the  morning  star,  terrible 
in  war,  merciful  in  peace,  as  a  victorious  hero,  a  wise  lawgiver, 
an  unerring  judge,  and  a  Christian  saint.  He  suffered  only  one 
defeat,  at  Eoncesvalles  in  the  narrow  passes  of  the  Pyrenees, 
when,  on  his  return  from  a  successful  invasion  of  Spain,  his  rear- 
guard with  the  flower  of  the  French  chivalry,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Roland,  one  of  his  paladins  and  nephews,  was  surprised 
and  routed  by  the  Basque  Mountaineers  (778),2 

i "  Maximo  totius  populi  luctu,"  says  Eginhard. 

*  The  historic  foundation  of  this  defeat  is  given  by  Eginhard,  ch.  9.  It  was 
then  marvellously  embellished,  and  Eoland  became  the  favorite  theme  of  min- 
strels and  poets,  as  The*roulde7s  Chanson  de  Jfoland,  Turpin's  Okronique^  Bojardo's 
Orlando  Innamorato,  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso,  etc.  His  enchanted  Horn 
sounded  so  load  that  the  birds  fell  dead  at  its  blast,  and  the  whole  Saracen 
army  drew  back  terror-struck.  When  he  was  attacked  in,  the  Pyrenees,  he 
blew  the  horn  for  the  last  time  so  hard  that  the  veins  of  his  neck  started,  and 
Charlemagne  heard  it  several  miles  off  at  St  Jean  Pied  de  Port,  bat  too  late 
to  save 

"  The  dead  who,  deathless  all, 
Were  slain  at  famous  KoncevalL" 


I  56.  CHARLES  THE  GEEAT.    A.  D.  768-814.  245 

The  name  of  "the  Blessed  Charles"  is  enrolled  in  the  Eoman 
Calendar  for  his  services  to  the  church  and  gifts  to  the  pope. 
Heathen  Eome  deified  Julius  Caesar,  Christian  Rome  canonized, 
or  at  least  beatified  Charlemagne.  Suffrages  for  the  repose  of 
his  soul  were  continued  in  the  church  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  until 
Paschal,  aschismatical  pope,  at  the  desire  of  Frederic  Barbarossa, 
enshrined  his  remains  in  that  city  and  published  a  decree  for  his 
canonization  (1166).  The  act  was  neither  approved  nor  revoked 
by  a  regular  pope,  but  acquiesced  in,  and  such  tacit  canonization 
is  considered  equivalent  to  beatification. 

Notes. 

I.  JTOGMENTS  OBT  THE  PERSONAL  CHARACTER  OP  CHARLEMAG3TE. 

EGHNHARD  (whose  wife  Emma  figures  in  the  legend  as  a  daughter  of 
Charlemagne)  gives  the  following  frank  account  of  the  private  and  do- 
mestic relations  of  his  master  and  friend  (ehs.  18  and  19,  in  Migne, 
Tom.  XCVII.  42  sqq.) : 

"  Thus  did  Charles  defend  and  increase  as  well  as  beautify  his  king- 
dom ;  and  here  let  me  express  my  admiration  of  his  great  qualities  and 
his  extraordinary  constancy  alike  in  good  and  evil  fortune.  I  will  now 
proceed  to  give  the  details  of  his  private  life.  After  his  father's  death, 
while  sharing  the  kingdom  with  his  brother,  he  bore  his  unfriendliness 
and  jealousy  most  patiently,  and,  to  the  wonder  of  all,  could  not  be  pro- 
voked to  be  angry  with  him.  Later"  [after  repudiating  his  first  wife, an 
obscure  person]  "  he  married  a  daughter  of  Desiderius,  King  of  the 
Lombards,  at  the  instance  of  his  mother"  [notwithstanding  the  protest  of 
the  pope] ;  "  but  he  repudiated  her  at  the  end  of  a  year  for  some  reason 
unknown,  and  married  Hildegard,  a  woman  of  high  birth,  of  Swabian 
origin  [d.  783].  He  had  three  sons  by  her, — Charles,  Pepin,  and  Lewis 
— and  as  many  daughters, — Hruodrud,  Bertha,  and  Gisela."  [Eginhard 
omits  Adelaide  and  Hildegard.]  "He  had  three  other  daughters  besides 
these— Theoderada,  Hiltrud,  and  Euodhaid— two  by  his  third  wife, 
Fastrada,  a  woman  of  East  Frankish  (that  is  to  say  of  German)  origin, 
and  the  third  by  a  concubine,  whose  name  for  the  moment  escapes  me. 
At  the  death  of  Fastrada,  he  married  Liutgard,  an  Alemannic  woman, 
who  bore  him  no  children.  After  her  death  he  had  three  [according  to 
another  reading  four]  concubines— Gerswinda,  a  Saxon,  by  whom  he  had 
Adaltrud ;  Eegina,  who  was  the  mother  of  Drogo  and  Hugh ;  and  Ethe- 
lind,  by  whom  he  had  Theodoric.  Charles's  mother,  Berthrada,  passed 
her  old  age  with  him  in  great  honor ;  he  entertained  the  greatest  venera- 
tion for  her ;  and  there  was  never  any  disagreement  between  them  except 
when  he  divorced  the  daughter  of  King  Desiderius,  whom  he  had  married 


246  FOURTH  PERIOD.   A.D.  590-1049. 

to  please  her.    She  died  soon  after  Hildegard,  after  living  to  see  three 
grandsons  and  as  many  grand-daughteis  in  her  son's  house,  and  he  buried 
her  with  great  pomp  in  the  Basilica  of  St.  Denis,  where  his  fether  lay- 
He  had  an  only  [surviving]  sister,  Gisela,  who  had  consecrated  herself  to 
a  religious  life  from  girlhood,  and  he  cherished  as  much  affection  for  her 
as  for  his  mother.    She  also  died  a  few  years  before  him  in  the  nunnery 
where  she  had  passed  her  life.    The  plan  which  he  adopted  for  his  chil- 
dren's education  was,  first  of  all,  to  have  both  boys  and  girls  instructed  in 
the  liberal  arts,  to  which  he  also  turned  his  own  attention.    As  soon  as 
their  years  admitted,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  Franks,  the  boys 
had  to  learn  horsemanship,  and  to  practise  war  and  the  chase,  and  the 
girls  to  familiarize  themselves  with  cloth-making,  and  to  handle  distaff 
and  spindle,  that  they  might  not  grow  indolent  through  idleness,  and  he 
fostered  in  them  every  virtuous  sentiment.    He  only  lost  three  of  all  his 
children  before  his  death,  two  sons  and  one  daughter.  .  .  .  When  his  sons 
and  his  daughters  died,  he  was  not  so  calm  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  his  remarkably  strong  mind,  for  his  affections  were  no  less  strong, 
and  moved  him  to  tears.    Again  when  he  was  told  of  the  death  of 
Hadrian,  the  Roman  Pontiff,  whom  he  had  loved  most  of  all  his  friends, 
he  wept  as  much  as  if  he  had  lost  a  brother,  or  a  very  dear  son.    He  was 
by  nature  most  ready  to  contract  friendships,  and  not  only  made  friends 
easily,  but  clung  to  them  persistently,  and  cherished  most  fondly  those 
with  whom  he  had  formed  such  ties.    He  was  so  careful  of  the  training 
of  his  sons  and  daughters  that  he  never  took  his  meals  without  them 
when  he  was  at  home,  and  never  made  a  journey  without  them;  his  sons 
would  ride  at  his  side,  and  his  daughters  follow  him,  while  a  number  of 
his  body-guard,  detailed  for  their  protection,  brought  up  the  rear. 
Strange  to  say,  although  they  were  very  handsome  women,  and  he  loved 
them  very  dearly,  he  was  never  willing  to  marry  either  of  them  to  a  man 
of  their  own  nation  or  to  a  foreigner,  but  kept  them  all  at  home  until  his 
death,  saying  that  he  could  not  dispense  with  their  society.    Hence 
though  otherwise  happy,  he  experienced  the  malignity  of  fortune  as  far  as 
they  were  concerned ;  yet  he  concealed  his  knowledge  of  the  rumors  cur- 
rent in  regard  to  them,  and  of  the  suspicions  entertained  of  their  honor. " 
GIBBON  is  no  Admirer  of  Charlemagne,  and  gives  an  exaggerated  view 
of  his  worst  vice:  "Of  his  moral  virtues  chastity  is  not  the  most  con- 
spicuous; but  the  public  happiness  could  not  be  materially  injured  by 
his  nine  wives  or  concubines,  the  various  indulgence  of  meaner  or  more 
transient  amours,  the  multitude  of  his  bastards  whom  he  bestowed  on  the 
church,  and  the  long  celibacy  and  licentious  manners  of  his  daughters, 
whom  the  father  was  suspected  of  loving  with  too  fond  a  passion.**    But 
this  charge  of  incest,  as  Hallam  and  Milman  observe,  seems  to  have  ori- 
ginated in  a  misinterpreted  passage  of  Eginhard  quoted  above,  and  is 
utterly  unfounded. 


g  56.  CHAELES  THE  GBEAT.    A.  D.  768-814.  247 

HENBY  HALLAM  (Middle  Ages  I.  26)  judges  a  little  more  favorably: 
"The  great  qualities  of  Charlemagne  were,  indeed,  alloyed  by  the  vices 
of  a  barbarian  and  a  conqueror.  Nine  wives,  whom  he  divorced  with 
very  little  ceremony,  attest  the  license  of  his  private  life,  which  his  tem- 
perance and  frugality  can  hardly  be  said  to  redeem.  Unsparing  of  blood, 
though  not  constitutionally  cruel,  and  wholly  indifferent  to  the  means 
which  his  ambition  prescribed,  he  beheaded  in  one  day  four  thousand 
Saxons — an  act  of  atrocious  butchery,  after  which  his  persecuting  edicts, 
pronouncing  the  pain  of  death  against  those  who  refused  baptism,  or 
even  who  ate  flesh  during  Lent,  seem  scarcely  worthy  of  notice.  This 
union  of  barbarous  ferocity  with  elevated  views  of  national  improvement 
might  suggest  the  parallel  of  Peter  the  Great.  But  the  degrading  habits 
and  brute  violence  of  the  Muscovite  place  him  at  an  immense  distance 
from  the  restorer  of  the  empire. 

"A  strong  sympathy  for  intellectual  excellence  was  the  leading  cha- 
racteristic of  Charlemagne,  and  this  undoubtedly  biassed  him  in  the 
chief  political  error  of  his  conduct — that  of  encouraging  the  power  and 
pretensions  of  the  hierarchy.  But,  perhaps,  his  greatest  eulogy  is  written 
in  the  disgraces  of  succeeding  times  and  the  miseries  of  Europe.  He 
stands  alone,  like  a  beacon  upon  a  waste,  or  a  rock  in  the  broad  ocean. 
His  sceptre  was  the  bow  of  Ulysses,  which  could  not  be  drawn  by  any 
weaker  hand.  In  the  dark  ages  of  European  history  the  reign  of  Charle- 
magne affords  a  solitary  resting-place  between  two  long  periods  of  tur- 
bulence and  ignominy,  deriving  the  advantages  of  contrast  both  from 
that  of  the  preceding  dynasty  and  of  a  posterity  for  whom  he  had  formed 
an  empire  which  they  were  unworthy  and  unequal  to  maintain.*' 

G.  P-  E.  JAMES  (History  of  Charlemagne,  Lond.,  1847,  p.  499) :  "No 
man,  perhaps,  that  ever  lived,  combined  in  so  high  a  degree  those  quali- 
ties which  rule  men  and  direct  events,  with  those  which  endear  the  pos- 
sessor and  attach  his  contemporaries.  No  man  was  ever  more  trusted  and 
loved  by  his  people,  more  respected  and  feared  by  other  kings,  more 
esteemed  in  his  lifetime,  or  more  regretted  at  his  death. 

MiLMAff  (Book  V.ch.  1) :  "Karl,  according  to  his  German  appella- 
tion, was  the  model  of  a  Teutonic  chieftain,  in  his  gigantic  stature, 
enormous  strength,  and  indefatigable  activity;  temperate  in  diet,  and 
superior  to  the  barbarous  vice  of  drunkenness.  Hunting  and  war  were 
his  chief  occupations ;  and  his  wars  were  carried  on  with,  all  the  ferocity 
of  encountering  savage  tribes.  But  he  was  likewise  a  Eoman  Emperor, 
not  only  in  his  vast  and  organizing  policy,  he  had  that  one  vice  of  the 
old  Eoman  civilization  which  the  Merovingian  kings  had  indulged, 
though  not  perhaps  with  more  unbounded  lawlessness.  The  religious 
emperor,  in  one  respect,  troubled  not  himself  with  the  restraints  of  reli- 
gion. The  humble  or  grateful  church  beheld  meekly,  and  almost  with- 
out remonstrance,  the  irregularity  of  domestic  life,  which  not  merely 


248  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

indulged  in  free  license,  but  treated  the  sacred  rite  of  marriage  as  a 
covenant  dissoluble  at  Ms  pleasure.  Once  we  have  heard,  and  but  once, 
the  church  raise  its  authoritative,  its  eomminatory  voice,  and  that  not  to 
forbid  the  King  of  the  Franks  from  wedding  a  second  wife  while  his  first 
was  alive,  but  from  marrying  a  Lombard  princess.  One  pious  ecclesiastic 
alone  in  his  dominion,  he  a  relative,  ventured  to  protest  aloud." 

GUIZOT  (Histoire  de  la  civilisation  en  France,  lecon  XX.) :  "  Charle- 
magne marque  la  limite  a  laqwlle  est  enfin  consomme's  la  dissolution  de 
Fancien  monde  rornain  et  barbare,  et  ou  commence  la  formation  du  monde 
nouveau." 

VfeTAULT  (Charlemagne,  455,  458) :  "  Charlemagne  fut,  en  effet,  lepere 
du  monde  moderne  et  de  la  societe'  europeenne.  .  .  .  £&  Ch.  ne  pent  Hre 
tegitemement  honore*  comme  un  sainty  II  a  droit  du  moim  a  la  premiere  place, 
parrnis  tons  les  heros,  dans  ^admiration  des  hommes;  car  on  ne  trouverait  pas 
un  outre  souverain  qui  ait  autant  aime"  Fhumanite'  et  lui  ait  fait  plus  de  bien. 
II  est  le  plus  gtorieux,  parce  que  .  .  .  ila  merits  d?  Gtre  prodame1  le  plus 
honnete  des  grands  kommes" 

GIESEBRECHT,  the  historian  of  the  German  emperors,  gives  a  glowing 
description  of  Charlemagne  (1. 140) :  "  Many  high-minded  rulers  arose  in 
the  ten  centuries  after  Charles,  but  none  Ijad  a  higher  aim.  To  be  ranked 
with  him,  satisfied  the  boldest  conquerors,  the  wisest  princes  of  peace. 
French  chivalry  of  later  times  glorified  Charlemagne  as  the  first  cavalier; 
the  German  burgeoisie  as  the  fatherly  friend  of  the  people  and  the  most 
righteous  judge ;  the  Catholic  Church  raised  him  to  the  number  of  her 
saints ;  the  poetry  of  all  nations  derived  ever  new  inspiration  and  strength 
from  his  mighty  person.  Never  perhaps  has  richer  life  proceeded  from 
the  activity  of  a  mortal  man  (Nie  vielleiM  isb  reieheres  Leben  von  der 
WurksamMt  eines  sterblichen  Menschen  ausgegangeri)." 

We  add  the  eloquent  testimony  of  an  American  author,  PABKE  GODWIN 
(History  of  France,  N.  Y.,  1860,  vol.  i.  p.  410) :  "There  is  to  me  some- 
thing indescribably  grand  in  the  figure  of  many  of  the  barbaric  chiefs — 
Alariks,  Ataulfe,  Theodoriks,  and  Euriks — who  succeeded  to  the  power  of 
the  Romans,  and  in  their  wild,  heroic  way,  endeavored  to  raise  a  fabric  of 
state  on  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  empire.  But  none  of  those  figures  is  so 
imposing  and  majestic  as  that  of  Karl,  the  son  of  Pippin,  whose  name, 
for  the  first  and  only  time  in  history,  the  admiration  of  mankind  has  in- 
dissolubly  blended  with  the  title  the  Great  By  the  peculiarity  of  his  po- 
sition in  respect  to  ancient  and  modern  times — by  the  extraordinary 
length  of  his  reign,  by  the  number  and  importance  of  the  transactions  in 
which  he  was  engaged,  by  the  extent  and  splendor  of  his  eonquegts,  by  his 
signal  services  to  the  Church,  and  by  the  grandeur  of  his  personal  quali- 
tiea— he  impressed  himself  so  profoundly  upon  the  character  of  his  times, 
that  he  stands  almost  alone  and  apart  in  the  annals  of  Europe.  For 
neatly  a  thousand  years  before  him,  or  since  the  days  of  Julius  Csesar,  no 


§  56.  CHARLES  THE  GBEAT.    A.D.  768-814. 


249 


monarch,  had  won  so  universal  and  brilliant  a  renown ;  and  for  nearly  a 
thousand  years  after  him,  or  until  the  days  of  Charles  V.  of  Germany,  no 
monarch  attained  any  thing  like  an  equal  dominion.  A  link  between  the 
old  and  new,  he  revived  the  Empire  of  the  West,  with  a  degree  of  glory 
that  it  had  only  enjoyed  in  its  prime;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
modern  history  of  every  Continental  nation  was  made  to  begin  with  him. 
Germany  claims  him  as  one  of  her  most  illustrious  sons;  France,  as  her 
noblest  king ;  Italy,  as  her  chosen  emperor ;  and  the  Church  u&  her  most 
prodigal  benefactor  and  worthy  saint.  All  the  institutions  of  the  Middle 
Ages — political,  literary,  scientific,  and  ecclesiastical — delighted  to  trace 
their  traditionary  origins  to  his  hand :  he  was  considered  the  source  of  the 
peerage,  the  inspirer  of  chivalry,  the  founder  of  universities,  and  the  en- 
dower  of  the  churches ;  and  the  genius  of  romance,  kindling  its  fantastic 
torches  at  the  flame  of  his  deeds,  lighted  up  a  new  and  marvellous  world 
about  him,  filled  with  wonderful  adventures  and  heroic  forms.  Thus  by 
a  double  immortality,  the  one  the  deliberate  award  of  history,  and  the 
other  the  prodigal  gift  of  fiction,  he  claims  the  study  of  mankind." 

II.  THE  CANOHIZA.TIOST  OF  CHABJLEMAGNE  is  perpetuated  in  the 
Offidum  infesto  Sancti  Garoli  Magni  imperatoris  et  confessoris,  as  celebrated 
in  churches  of  Germany,  France,  and  Spain.  Baronius  (AnnaL  ad  ann. 
814)  says  that  the  canonization  was  not  accepted  by  the  Eoman  church, 
because  Paschalis  was  no  legitimate  pope,  but  neither  was  it  forbidden. 
Alban  Butler,  in  his  Lives  of  jSamts,  gives  a  eulogistic  biography  of  the 
"Blessed  Charlemagne,"  and  covers  his  besetting  sin  with  the  following 
unhistorical  assertion:  "The  incontinence,  into  which  he  fell  in  his 
youth,  he  expiated  by  sincere  repentance,  so  that  several  churches  in  Ger- 
many and  France  honor  him  among  the  saints.'' 

On  the  poetic  and  legendary  history  of  Charlemagne,  see  Vita  Garoli  Magni  et 
Rolandi,  •written  about  1100  under  the  name  of  Torpin,  archbishop  of  Rheims ; 
the  work  of  Gaston,  above  quoted ;  an  essay  of  L6on  Gautier  (La  tfgende  de 
Charlemagne)  in  Y&ault,  pp.  461-485;  and  E.  Koschwitz:  Karh  des  Grossen 
Base  nach  Jerusalem  und  Cvristmiwopd,  Heilbronn  u.  London,  1880. 


gkntfti  ipff 


srcanra 


CABOLI  GLOMOSISSniI  REGIS. 


The  monogram  of  Charles  with  the  additions  of  a  scribe  in  a  document 
signed  by  Charles  at  Knfetein,  Aug.  31,  790.    Copied  from  Stacke,  L  a. 


250  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D- 590-1049. 


§  57.  Famdwg  of  {he  Holy  Soman  Empire^  A.  D.  800. 
Charlemagne  and  Leo  IH. 

G.  SUGENHEIM:  Geschichte  der  JMstehung  und  Ausbttdu  ng  des  Ezrehen- 
staates.  Leipz.  1854 

F.  SCHAKPFF:  DUEntetehungdes  ffirchenstaate.    Freib.  L  B.  1860. 
TH.  D.  MOCK  :  De  Donations  a  Carolo  Mag.  sedi  apostolicce  anno  774 
oblata.    Munich  1861. 

JAMES  BBYCE  :  The  Holy  Jfoman  Empire.  Loud.  &  N.  York  (Macmil- 
lan  &  Co.)"  6th  ed  1876,  8th  ed.  1880.  German  translation  by  Arthur 
WincMer. 


VON  SYBEL  :  Die  Schenhmgen  der  Karolinger  an  die  Papste. 
In  Sybel's  "Hist.  ZeitschrifV'  Miinchen  &  Leipz.    1880,  pp.  46-85. 


Comp.  BAXMAN^  :  L  307  sqq.  ;  VETATILT  :  Gh.  HI.  pp.  113  sqq.  (  Charle- 
magne, patrice  des  Romains  —  Formation  des  &ats  de  Ffylise). 


Charlemagne  inherited  the  protectorate  of  the  temporal  do- 
minions of  the  pope  which  had  been  wrested  from  the  Lombards 
by*  Pepin,  as  the  Lombards  had  wrested  them  from  the  Eastern 
emperor.  When  the  Lombards  again  rebelled  and  the  pope 
(Hadrian)  again  appealed  to  the  transalpine  monarch  for  help, 
Charles  in  the  third  year  of  his  sole  reign  (774)  came  to  the  rescue, 
crossed  the  Alps  with  an  army — a  formidable  undertaking  in 
those  days — subdued  Italy  with  the  exception  of  a  small  part  of 
the  South  still  belonging  to  the  Greek  empire,  held  a  triumphal 
entry  in  Borne,  and  renewed  and  probably  enlarged  his  father's 
gift  to  the  pope.  The  original  documents  have  perished,  and  no 
contemporary  authority  vouches  for  the  details;  but  the  fact  is 
undoubted.  The  gift  rested  only  on  the  right  of  conquest. 
Henceforward  he  always  styled  himself  "Rex  Urancorum  et 
Lonffobardorwn,  et  Patricks  Ihmanorvm"  His  authority  over 
the  immediate  territory  of  the  Lombards  in  Northern  Italy  was 
as  complete  as  that  in  France,  but  the  precise  nature  of  his 


\  57.  FOUNDING  OF  THE  HOLY  EOMAN  EMPIRE.  A.  D.  800. 

authority  over  the  pope's  dominion  as  Patrician  of  the  Romans 
became  after  his  death  an  apple  of  discord  for  centuries.  Ha- 
drian, to  judge  from  his  letters,  considered  himself  as  much  an 
absolute  sovereign  in  his  dominion  as  Charles  in  his. 

In  781  at  Easter  Charles  revisited  Rome  with  his  son  Pepin, 
who  on  that  occasion  was  anointed  by  the  pope  "  King  for  Italy" 
("  Rex  in  Italiam")-  On  a  third  visit,  in  787,  he  spent  a  few 
days  with  his  friend,  Hadrian,  in  the  interest  of  the  patrimony 
of  St.  Peter.  When  Leo  III.  followed  Hadrian  (796)  he  imme- 
diately dispatched  to  Charles,  as  tokens  of  submission,  the  keys 
and  standards  of  the  city,  and  the  keys  of  the  sepulchre  of  Peter. 

A  few  years  afterwards  a  terrible  riot  broke  out  in  Rome  in 
which  the  pope  was  assaulted  and  almost  killed  (799).  He  fled 
for  help  to  Charles,  then  at  Paderborn  in  Westphalia,  and  was 
promised  assistance.  The  next  year  Charles  again  crossed  the 
Alps  and  declared  his  intention  to  investigate  the  charges  of  cer- 
tain unknown  crimes  against  Leo,  but  no  witness  appeared  to 
prove  them.  Leo  publicly  read  a  declaration  of  his  own  inno- 
cence, probably  at  the  request  of  Charles,  but  with  a  protest  that 
this  declaration  should  not  be  taken  for  a  precedent.  Soon  after- 
wards occurred  the  great  event  which  marks  an  era  in  iihe  eccle- 
siastical and  political  history  of  Europe. 

THB  CORONATION'  OF  CHARLES  AS  EMPEROK. 

While  Charles  was  celebrating  Christmas  in  St.  Peter's,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  800,  and  kneeling  in  prayer  before  the 
altar,  the  pope,  as  under  a  sudden  inspiration  (but  no  doubt  in 
consequence  of  a  premeditated  scheme),  placed  a  golden  crown 
upon  his  head,  and  the  Roman  people  shouted  three  times:  "  To 
Charles  Augustus,  crowned  by  God,  the  great  and  pacific  empe- 
ror of  the  Romans,  life  and  victory ! "  Forthwith,  after  ancient 
custom,  he  was  adored  by  the  pope,  and  was  styled  henceforth 
(instead  of  Patrician)  Emperor  and  Augustus.1 

lAnnak9Lauri88cn8e8adann.WI:  u  Ipaa  die  sacratiswma  natalis  Domini  CUM 


FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

The  new  emperor  presented  to  the  pope  a  round  table  of  silver 
with,  the  picture  of  Constantinople,  and  many  gifts  of  gold,  and 
remained  in  Eome  till  Easter.  The  moment  or  manner  of  the 
coronation  may  have  been  unexpected  by  Charles  (if  we  are  to 
believe  his  word),  but  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  it  was  not  the 
result  of  a  previous  arrangement  between  him  and  Leo.  Alcuin 
seems  to  have  aided  the  scheme.  In  his  view  the  pope  occupied 
the  first,  the  emperor  the  second,  the  king  the  third  "degree  in 
the  scale  of  earthly  dignities.  He  sent  to  Charles  from  Tours 
before  his  coronation  a  splendid  Bible  with  the  inscription:  Ad 
splendorem  imperialis  potential} 

On  his  return  to  France  Charles  compelled  all  his  subjects  to 
take  a  new  oath  to  h™  as  u  Caesar."  He  assumed  the  full  title 
"Seremssimus  Augustus  a  Deo  wronatus,  magnus  et  paGificus 
imperator,  Bomanum  gubernans  imperium,  qui  et  per  misericor- 
diam  Dei  rex  Francorum  et  Longobardorum,." 

SIGNIPICAJSTCE  OP  THE  ACT. 

The  act  of  coronation  was  on  the  part  of  the  pope  a  final 
declaration  of  independence  and  self-emancipation  against  the 
Greek  emperor,  as  the  legal  ruler  of  Rome.  Charles  seems  to 
have  felt  this,  and  hence  he  proposed  to  unite  the  two  empires  by 
marrying  Irene,  who  had  put  her  son  to  death  and  usurped  the 
Greek  crown  (797).  But  the  same  rebellion  had  been  virtually 
committed  before  by  the  pope  in  sending  the  keys  of  the  city  to 
Pepin,  and  by  the  French  king  in  accepting  this  token  of  tem- 
poral sovereignty.  Public  opinion  justified  the  act  on  flie  prin- 
ciple that  might  makes  right.  The  Greek  emperor,  being  unable 

Bex  ad  Mt&am  ante  confessionem  5.  Petri  Apostoli  ab  aratione  swgeret,  Leo  P. 
coronam  capiti  ejus  imposuti,  et  a  cuncto  Romanorum  populo  acdamatum  est: 
'Kajrolo  Augwlo,  a  Deo  coronato,  magno  et  pacjfico  Imperatori  Bomanorum,  vita  et 
victoria  f  M  post  Laudes  ab  Apostolico  more  antiquorum  prwripum  adoratw  est, 
atgue,  ablato  Ptsbridi  nomine,  Impcrator  et  Augustus  est  appettatus.''  Comp.  Egin- 
Hard,  AnnaL  ad  asm.  800,  and  Vita  Car^  c.  28. 

1  But  the  date  of  the  letter  and  the  meaning  of  imperials  are  not  quite  certain. 
See  Bettberg,  ttrchengesch,  Deifcchlands,  L  430,  and  Baunann,  Politik  far 
PSpsfe,  I.  SIS  sqq. 


g  57.  FOUNDING  OF  THE  HOLY  EOMAN  EMPIBE.  A.D.  800.  253 

to  maintain  his  power  in  Italy  and  to  defend  his  own  subjects, 
first  against  the  Lombards  and  then  against  the  Franks,  had 
virtually  forfeited  his  claim. 

For  the  West  the  event  was  the  re-establishment,  on  a  Teutonic 
basis,  of  the  old  Eoman  empire,  which  henceforth,  together  with 
the  papacy,  controlled  the  history  of  the  middle  ages.  The  pope 
and  the  emperor  represented  the  highest  dignity  and  power  in 
church  and  state.  But  the  pope  was  the  greater  and  more  endu- 
ring power  of  the  two.  He  continued,  down  to  the  BeformatioLtt, 
the  spiritual  ruler  of  all  Europe,  and  is  to  this  day  the  ruler  of 
an  empire  much  vaster  than  that  of  ancient  Kome.  He  is,  in 
the  striking  language  of  Hobbes,  "the  ghost  of  the  deceased 
Eoman  Empire,  sitting  crowned  upon  the  grave  thereof." 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  POPE  AISfD  THE  EMPEROR. 

What  was  the  legal  and  actual  relation  between  these  two 
sovereignties,  and  the  limits  of  jurisdiction  of  each  ?  This  was 
the  struggle  of  centuries.  It  involved  many  problems  which 
could  only  be  settled  in  the  course  of  events.  It  was  easy  enough 
to  distinguish  the  two  in  theory  by  confining  the  pope  to 
spiritual,  and  the  emperor  to  temporal  affairs.  But  on  the 
theocratic  theory  of  the  union  of  church  and  state  the  two  will 
and  must  come  into  frequent  conflict. 

The  pope,  by  voluntarily  conferring  the  imperial  crown  upon 
Charles,  might  claim  that  the  empire  was  his  gift,  and  that  the 
right  of  crowning  implied  the  right  of  discrowning.  And  this 
right  was  exercised  by  popes  at  a  later  period,  who  wielded  the 
secular  as  well  as  the  spiritual  sword  and  absolved  nations  of 
their  oath  of  allegiance.  A  mosaic  picture  in  the  tridinium  of 
Leo  III.  in  the  Lateran  (from  the  ninth  century)  represents  St. 
Peter  in  glory,  bestowing  upon  Leo  kneeling  at  his  right  hand 
the  priestly  stole,  and  upon  Charles  kneeling  at  his  left,  the 
standard  of  Borne.1  This  is  the  mediaeval  hierarchical  theory, 

1  The  picture  is  reproduced  in  the  works  of  V&ault  and  Stacke  above  quoted. 


254  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

which  derives  all  power  from  God  through  Peter  as  the  head  of 
the  church.  Gregory  YIL  compared  the  church  to  the  sun,  the 
state  to  the  moon  who  derives  her  light  from  the  sun.  The 
popes  will  always  maintain  the  principle  of  the  absolute  supre- 
macy of  the  church  over  the  state,  and  support  or  oppose  a  gov- 
ernment— whether  it  be  an  empire  or  a  kingdom  or  a  republic — 
according  to  the  degree  of  its  subserviency  to  the  interests  of  the 
hierarchy.  The  papal  Syllabus  of  1864  expresses  the  genuine 
spirit  of  the  system  in  irreconcilable  conflict  with  the  spirit  of 
modern  history  and  civilization.  The  Vatican  Palace  is  the 
richest  museum  of  classical  and  mediaeval  curiosities,  and  the 
pope  himself,  the  infallible  oracle  of  two  hundred  millions  of 
souls,  is  by  far  the  greatest  curiosity  in  it. 

On  the  other  hand  Charles,  although  devotedly  attached  to 
the  church  and  the  pope,  was  too  absolute  a  monarch  to  recog- 
nize a  sovereignty  within  his  sovereignty.  He  derived  his  idea 
of  the  theocracy  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  relation 
between  Moses  and  Aaron.  He  understood  and  exercised  his 
imperial  dignity  pretty  much  in  the  same  way  as  Constantino 
the  Great  and  Theodosius  the  Great  had  done  in  iihe  Byzantine 
empire,  which  was  csesaro-papal  in  principle  and  practice,  and  so  is 
its  successor,  the  Russian  empire.  Charles  believed  that  he  was 
the  divinely  appointed  protector  of  the  church  and  the  regulator  of 
all  her  external  and  to  some  extent  also  the  internal  affairs.  He 
called  the  synods  of  his  empire  without  asking  the  pope.  He 
presided  at  the  Council  of  Frankfort  (794),  which  legislated 
on  matters  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  condemned  the  Adoption 
heresy,  agreeably  to  the  pope,  and  rejected  the  image  worship 
against  the  decision  of  the  second  oecumenical  Council  of  Nicaea 
(787)  and  the  declared  views  of  several  popes.1  He  appointed 

iMHman(IL497):  ft  The  Council  of  Frankfort  displays  most  follythepowT 
assumed  by  Charlemagne  over  the  hierarchy  as  well  as  the  nobility  of  the 
realm,  the  mingled  character,  the  all-embracing  comprehensiveness  of  his 
legislation.  The  assembly  at  Frankfort  was  at  once  a  Diet  or  Parliament  of 
the  realm,  and  an  ecclesiastical  Council  It  took  cognizance  alternately  of 


g  58.  SUBVEY  OF  THE  HISTOBY  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       255 

bishops  and  abbots  as  well  as  counts,  and  if  a  vacancy  in  the 
papacy  had  occurred  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  he  would 
probably  have  filled  it  as  well  as  the  ordinary  bishoprics.  The 
first  act  after  his  coronation  was  to  summon  and  condemn  to 
death  for  treason  those  who  had  attempted  to  depose  the  pope. 
He  thus  acted  as  judge  in  the  case.  A  Council  at  Mayence  in 
813  called  him  in  an  official  document  "  the  pious  ruler  of  the 
holy  church/'  * 

Charles  regarded  the  royal  and  imperial  dignity  as  the  heredi- 
tary possession  of  his  house  and  people,  and  crowned  his  son, 
Louis  the  Pious,  at  Aix-k-Chapelle  in  813,  without  consulting 
the  pope  or  the  Romans.2  He  himself  as  a  Teuton  represented 
both  France  and  Germany.  But  with  the  political  separation  of 
the  two  countries  under  his  successors,  the  imperial  dignity  was 
attached  to  the  German  crown.  Hence  also  the  designation :  the 
holy  German  Roman  empire. 

§  58.  Survey  of  the  History  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
The  readiness  with  which  the  Romans  responded  to  the  crown- 
ing act  of  Leo  proves  that  the  re-establishment  of  the  Western 
empire  was  timely.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  seemed  to  be  the 
necessary  counterpart  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church.  For  many 
centuries  the  nations  of  Europe  had  been  used  to  the  concentra- 
tion of  all  secular  power  in  one  head.  It  is  true,  several  Roman 
emperors  from  Nero  to  Diocletian  had  persecuted  Christianity  by 
fire  and  sword,  but  Constantine  and  his  successors  had  raised  the 

matters  purely  ecclesiastical  and  of  matters  as  clearly  secular.  Charlemagne 
was  present  and  presided  in  the  Council  of  Frankfort  The  canons  as  well  as 
the  other  statutes  were  issued  chiefly  in  his  name.91 

1  Sancfa  Ecdesue  tarn  pium  ac  devotum  in  senritio  Dei  rectorem.  Also,  in  his 
own  language,  Devotus  Ecctesfa  defensor  atqw  adjutor  in  omnibu*  apostottca  fedu. 
Kettberg  L  425, 439  sqq. 

3  Ann.  Einhardi,  ad.  ann.  813  (in  Migne's  Patrol.  Tom.  104,  p.  478) :  "Evo- 
zatum  ad  se  apud  Aquasgrani  fLium  suum  Ittudvoiwon  Aquafanfa  rcgem,  eoranam 
UK  imposuit  et  imperialis  nvminis  sSA  consortem  fecit."  When  Stephen  IV.  visited 
Louis  in  816,  he  bestowed  on  him  simply  spiritual  consecration.  In  the  same 
manner  Louis  appointed  his  son  Lothair  emperor  who  was  afterwards  crowned 
by  the  pope  in  Borne  (823). 


256  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  B.  590-1049. 

church  to  dignity  and  power,  and  bestowed  upon  it  all  the  privi- 
leges of  a  state  religion.  The  transfer  of  the  seat  of  empire  from 
Rome  to  Constantinople  withdrew  from  the  Western  church  the 
protection  of  the  secular  arm,  and  exposed  Europe  to  the  horrors 
of  barbarian  invasion  and  the  chaos  of  civil  wars.  The  popes 
were  among  the  chief  sufierers,  their  territory  being  again  and 
again  overrun  and  laid  waste  by  the  savage  Lombards.  Hence 
the  instinctive  desire  for  the  protecting  arm  of  a  new  empire,  and 
this  could  only  be  expected  from  the  fresh  and  vigorous  Teutonic 
power  which  had  risen  beyond  the  Alps  and  Christianized  by 
Roman  missibnaries.  Into  this  empire  "all  the  life  of  the 
ancient  world  was  gathered ;  out  of  it  all  the  life  of  the  modern 
world  arose."1 

THE  ET&fPTRT!  AND  THE  PAPACY,  THE  TWO  ROTJETG-  POWERS  OF 
THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

Henceforward  the  mediaeval  history  of  Europe  is  chiefly  a 
history  of  the  papacy  and  the  empire*  They  were  regarded  as 
the  two  arms  of  God  in  governing  the  church  and  the  world. 
This  twofold  government  was  upon  the  whole  the  best  training- 
school  of  the  barbarian  races  for  Christian  civilization  and  free- 
dom. The  papacy  acted  as  a  wholesome  check  upon  military 
despotism,  the  empire  as  a  check  upon  the  abuses  of  priestcraft. 
Both  secured  order  and  unity  against  the  disintegrating  tenden- 
cies of  society ;  both  nourished  the  great  idea  of  a  commonwealth 
of  nations,  of  a  brotherhood  of  mankind,  of  a  communion  of 
saints.  By  its  connection  with  Rome,  the  empire  infused  new 
blood  into  the  old  nationalities  of  the  South,  and  transferred  the 
remaining  treasures  of  classical  culture  and  the  Roman  law  to 
the  new  nations  of  the  North.  The  tendency  of  both  was  ulti- 
mately self-destructive;  they  fostered,  while  seeming  to  oppose, 
the  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  and  national  independence.  The  disci- 
pline of  authority  always  produces  freedom  as  its  legitimate 
result.  The  kw  is  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to  the  gospel. 

396  (8th  ed.) 


\  58.  SURVEY  OP  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  EMPIEK   257 
OTHO  THE  GBEAT. 

In  the  opening  chapter  of  the  history  of  the  empire  we  find  it 
under  the  control  of  a  master-mind  and  in  friendly  alliance  with 
the  papacy.  Under  the  weak  successors  of  Charlemagne  it 
dwindled  down  to  a  merely  nominal  existence.  But  it  revived 
again  in  Otho  I.  or  the  Great  (936-973),  of  the  Saxon  dynasty. 
He  was  master  of  the  pope  and  defender  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  left  everywhere  the  impress  of  an  heroic  character,  inferior 
only  to  that  of  Charles.  Under  Henry  III.  (1039-1056),  when 
the  papacy  sank  lowest,  the  empire  again  proved  a  reforming 
power.  He  deposed  three  rival  popes,  and  elected  a  worthy 
successor.  But  as  the  papacy  rose  from  its  degradation,  it  over- 
awed the  empire. 

HENEY  IV.  AND  GHREGOBY  VH. 

Under  Henry  IV.  (1056-1106)  and  Gregory  VII.  (1073-1085) 
the  two  powers  came  into  the  sharpest  conflict  concerning  the  right 
of  investiture,  or  the  supreme  control  in  the  election  of  bishops 
and  abbots.  The  papacy  achieved  a  moral  triumph  over  the 
empire  at  Canossa,  when  the  mightiest  prince  kneeled  as  a  peni- 
tent at  the  feet  of  the  proud  successor  of  Peter  (1077);  but 
Henry  recovered  his  manhood  and  his  power,  set  up  an  anti- 
pope,  and  Gregory  died  in  exile  at  Salerno,  yet  without  yielding 
an  inch  of  his  principles  and  pretensions.  The  conflict  lasted 
fifty  years,  and  ended  with  the  Concordat  of  Worms  (Sept.  23, 
1122),  which  was  a  compromise,  but  with  a  limitation  of  the 
imperial  prerogative  :  the  pope  secured  the  right  to  invest  the 
bishops  with  the  ring  and  crozier,  but  the  new  bishop  before 
his  consecration  was  to  receive  his  temporal  estates  as  a  fief  of  the 
crown  by  the  touch  of  the  emperor's  sceptre. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HOHENSTA 

Under  the  Swabian  emperors  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen 
(1138-1254)  the  Roman  empire  reached  its  highest  power  in 
connection  with  the  Crusades,  in  the  palmy  days  of  mediaeval 


258  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

chivalry,  poetry  and  song.  They  excelled  in  personal  greatness 
and  renown  the  Saxon  and  the  Salic  emperors,  but  were  too 
much  concerned  with  Italian  affairs  for  the  good  of  Germany. 
Frederick  Barbarossa  (Redbeard),  during  his  long  reign  (1152- 
1190),  was  a  worthy  successor  of  Charlemagne  and  Otho  the 
Great.  He  subdued  Northern  Italy,  quarrelled  with  pope 
Alexander  III.,  enthroned  two  rival  popes  (Paschal  IIL,  and 
after  his  death  Calixtos  III.),  but  ultimately  submitted  to  Alex- 
ander, fell  at  his  feet  at  Venice,  and  was  embraced  by  the  pope 
with  tears  of  joy  and  the  kiss  of  peace  (1177).  He  died  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  crusaders,  while  attempting  to  cross  the 
Cydnus  in  Cilicia  (June  10,  1190),  and  entered  upon  his  long 
enchanted  sleep  in  Kyffhauser  till  his  spirit  reappeared  to  estab- 
lish a  new  German  empire  in  1871.1 

Under  Innocent  HI.  (1198-1216)  the  papacy  reached  the 
acme  of  its  power,  and  maintained  it  till  the  time  of  Boniface 
VHL  (1294r-1303).  Emperor  Frederick  II.  (1215-1250),  Bar- 
faarossa's  grandson,  was  equal  to  the  best  of  his  predecessors  in 
genius  and  energy,  superior  to  them  in  culture,  but  more  an 
Italian  than  a  German,  and  a  skeptic  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
He  reconquered  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  crusade,  but  cared  little 
for  the  church,  and  was  put  under  the  ban  by  pope  Gregory  IX., 
who  denounced  him  as  a  heretic  and  blasphemer,  and  compared 

1Eriedrich  Euckert  has  reproduced  this  significant  German  legend  in  a  poem 

"Der  alte  Barbarossa> 

Der  Kaiser  Friederich, 

Im  unterird'schen  Schlosse 

Halt  er  verzaubert  sich. 

Er  ist  niemaJs  gestorben, 

Er  lebt  darin  noch  jetzt; 
Er  hat  im  Schloes  verborgen 

Zom  Schlaf  sich.  Mngesetzt 

Er  n?t  Mnabgenommen 

Des  Belches  Heirlichkeit, 
Uiid  wizd  einst  wiederkommen 

Mitilirzu  seiner  Zeit,"  etc. 


5  58.  SUEVEY  OF  THE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  EMPIRE/      259 

him  to  the  Apocalyptic  beast  from  the  abyss.1  The  news  of  his 
sudden  death  was  hailed  by  pope  Innocent  IV.  with  the  excla- 
mation :  "  Let  the  heavens  rejoice,  and  let  the  earth  be  glad." 
His  death  was  the  collapse  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen,  and  for 
a  time  also  of  the  Eoman  empire.  His  son  and  successor  Con- 
rad IV.  ruled  but  a  few  years,  and  his  grandson  Conradin,  a 
bright  and  innocent  youth  of  sixteen,  was  opposed  by  the  pope, 
and  beheaded  at  Naples  in  sight  of  his  hereditary  kingdom 
(October  29, 1268). 

Italy  was  at  once  the  paradise  and  the  grave  of  German 
ambition. 

THE  GEEMAST  EMPIRE. 

After  "-the  great  interregnum"  when  might  was  right,2  the 
Swiss  count  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  (a  castle  in  the  Swiss  canton  of 
Aargau)  was  elected  emperor  by  the  seven  electors,  and  crowned 
at  Aachen  (1273-1291).  He  restored  peace  and  order,  never 
visited  Italy,  escaped  the  ruinous  quarrels  with  the  pope,  built 
up  a  German  kingdom,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  conserva- 
tive, orthodox,  tenacious,  and  selfish  house  of  Austria. 

The  empire  continued  to  live  for  more  than  five  centuries  with 
varying  fortunes,  in  nominal  connection  with  Rome  and  at  the 
head  of  the  secular  powers  in  Christendom,  but  without  control- 
ling influence  over  the  fortunes  of  the  papacy  and  the  course  of 
Europe.  Occasionally  it  sent  forth  a  gleam  of  its  universal  aim, 
as  under  Henry  VH.,  who  was  crowned  in  Rome  $nd  hailed  by 
Dante  as  the  saviour  of  Italy,  but  died  of  fever  (if  not  of  poison 
administered  by  a  Dominican  monk  in  the  sacramental  cup)  in 
Tuscany  (1313) ;  under  Sigismund,  the  convener  and  protector 
of  the  oecumenical  Council  at  Constance  which  deposed  popes 
and  burned  Hus  (1414),  a  much  better  man  than  either  the 
emperor  or  the  contemporary  popes;  under  Charles  V.  (1519- 
1558),  who  wore  the  crown  of  Spain  and  Austria  as  well  as  of 

1  He  alone,  of  all  the  emperors,  is  consigned  to  hell  by  Dante  (Inferno,  x- 119) : 

«  Within  here  is  the  second  Frederick." 
*  Schffler  calls  it  "die  Jtottflrfcwe,  die  xfaetmfo  Zeit" 


260  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Germany,  and  on  whose  dominions  the  sun  never  set ;  and  under 
Joseph  II.  (1765-1790),  who  renounced  the  intolerant  policy  of 
his  ancestors,  unmindful  of  the  pope's  protest,  and  narrowly 
escaped  greatness.1  But  the  emperors  after  Rudolf,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  were  no  more  crowned  in  Eome,  and  withdrew  from 
Italy.2  They  were  chosen  at  Frankfort  by  the  Seven  Electors, 
three  spiritual,  and  four  temporal :  the  archbishops  of  Mente, 
Treves,  and  Cologne,  the  king  of  Bohemia,  and  the  Electors  of 
the  Palatinate,  Saxony,  and  Braadenburg  (afterwards  enlarged  to 
nine).  The  competition,  however,  was  confined  to  a  few  power- 
ful houses,  until  in  the  15th  century  the  Hapsburgs  grasped  the 
crown  and  held  it  tenaciously,  with  one  exception,  till  the  dis- 
solution. The  Hapsburg  emperors  always  cared  more  for  their 
hereditary  dominions,  which  they  steadily  increased  by  fortunate 
marriages,  than  for  Germany  and  the  papacy. 

THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  EMPIRE. 

Many  causes  contributed  to  the  gradual  downfall  of  the  Ger- 
man empire:  the  successful  revolt  of  the  Swiss  mountaineers, 
the  growth  of  the  independent  kingdoms  of  Spain,  France,  and 
England,  the  jealousies  of  the  electors  and  the  minor  German 
princes,  the  discovery  of  a  new  Continent  in  the  West,  the  inva- 
sion of  the  Turks  from  the  East,  the  Beformation  which  divided 
the  German  people  into  two  hostile  religions,  the  fearful  devasta- 
tions of  tie  thirty  years'  war,  the  rise  of  the  house  of  Hohenzol- 
lern  and  the  kingdom  of  Prussia  on  German  soil  with  ihe 

1  The  pope  Pins  VL  even  made  a  journey  to  Vienna,  but  when  he  extended 
his  hand  to  the  minister  Kaunitz  to  kiss,  the  minister  took  it  and  shook  it, 
Joseph  in  tarn  visited  Borne,  and  was  received  bj  the  people  with  the  shout: 
u  Ewvoa.  &  nosb-o  imperatore  f" 

*  Dante  (Purgat.  VEL  94)  represents  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  as  seated  gloomily 
apart  in  purgatory,  and  mourning  his  sin  of  neglecting 

"To  heal  the  wounds  that  Italy  have  slain." 

Weary  of  the  endless  strife  of  domestic  tyrants  and  factions  in  every  city,  Dante 
longed  for  some  controlling  power  that  should  restore  unity  and  peace  to  his 
beloved  but  unfortunate  Italy.  He  expounded  Ms  political  ideas  in  his  work 
De  MmarcMa. 


2  58.  SUEVEY  OP  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  EMPERE.        261 

brilliant  genius  of  Frederick  II.,  and  the  wars  growing  out  of 
the  French  Revolution.  In  its  last  stages  it  became  a  mere 
shadow,  and  justified  the  satirical  description  (traced  to  VoltaireJ, 
that  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  neither  holy,  nor  Roman,  nor 
an  empire.  The  last  of  the  emperors,  Francis  II.,  in  August 
6th,  1806,  abdicated  the  elective  crown  of  Germany  and  substi- 
tuted for  it  the  hereditary  crown  of  Austria  as  Francis  I. 
(d.  1835). 

Thus  the  holy  Roman  empire  died  in  peace  at  the  venerable 
age  of  one  thousand  and  six  years. 

THE  EMPIRE  OP  NAPOLEON. 

Napoleon,  hurled  into  sudden  power  by  the  whirlwind  of 
revolution  on  the  wings  of  his  military  genius,  aimed  at  the 
double  glory  of  a  second  Caesar  and  a  second  Charlemagne,  and 
constructed,  by  arbitrary  force,  a  huge  military  empire  on  the 
basis  of  France,  with  the  pope  as  an  obedient  paid  servant  at 
Paris,  but  it  collapsed  on  the  battle  fields  of  Leipzig  and  Water- 
loo, without  the  hope  of  a  resurrection.  "  I  have  not  succeeded 
Louis  Quatorze,"  he  said,  "but  Charlemagne."  He  dismissed 
his  wife  and  married  a  daughter  of  the  last  German  and  first 
Austrian  emperor;  he  assumed  the  Lombard  crown  at  Milan; 
he  made  his  ill-fated  son  "  King  of  Rome"  in  imitation  of  the 
German  "  King  of  the  Romans."  He  revoked  "  the  donations 
which  my  predecessors,  the  French  emperors  have  made,"  and 
appropriated  them  to  France.  "Tour  holiness,"  he  wrote  to 
Pius  VII.,  who  had  once  addressed  him  as  his  "very  dear  Son 
in  Christ,"  "is  sovereign  of  Rome,  but  I  am  the  emperor 
thereof."  "You  are  right,"  he  wrote  to  Cardinal  Fesch,  his 
uncle,  "that  I  am  Charlemagne,  and  I  ought  to  be  treated  as 
the  emperor  of  the  papal  court  I  shall  inform  the  pope  of  my 
intentions  in  a  few  words,  and  if  he  declines  to  acquiesce,  I  shall 
reduce  him  to  the  same  condition  in  which  he  was  before  Charle- 
magne." l  It  is  reported  that  he  proposed  to  the  pope  to  reside 

1  In  another  letter  to  Peach  (Correspond,  de  ?  empercur  NapcL  I",  Tom.  xi 


262  FOUETH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

in  Paris  with  a  large  salary,  and  rule  the  conscience  of  Europe 
under  the  military  supremacy  of  the  emperor,  that  the  pope 
listened  first  to  his  persuasion  with  the  single  remark:  *'  Come- 
dian," and  then  to  his  threats  with  the  reply:  "Tragedian,"  and 
turned  him  his  back.  The  papacy  utilized  the  empire  of  the 
uncle  and  the  nephew,  as  well  as  it  could,  and  survived  them. 
But  the  first  Napoleon  swept  away  the  effete  institutions  of 
feudalism,  and  by  his  ruthless  and  scornful  treatment  of  con- 
quered nationalities  provoked  a  powerful  revival  of  these  very 
nationalities  which  overthrew  and  buried  his  own  artificial  em- 
pire. The  deepest  humiliation  of  the  German  nation,  and  espe- 
cially of  Prussia,  was  the  beginning  of  its  uprising  in  the  war  of 
liberation. 

THE  GEBMA3T  OONFEBEEATION. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  ejected  a  temporary  substitute  for 
the  old  empire  in  the  German  "Bund"  at  Frankfort.  It  was 
no  federal  state,  but  a  loose  confederacy  of  38  sovereign  states, 
or  princes  rather,  without  any  popular  representation ;  it  was  a 
rope  of  sand,  a  sham  unity,  under  the  leadership  of  Austria;  and 
Austria  shrewdly  and  selfishly  used  the  petty  rivalries  and 
jealousies  of  the  smaller  principalities  as  a  means  to  check  the 
progress  of  Prussia  and  to  suppress  all  liberal  movements. 

THE  KEW  GERMAN"  EMPIRE. 

In  the  meantime  the  popular  desire  for  national  union, 
awakened  by  the  war  of  liberation  and  a  great  national  litera- 
ture, made  steady  progress,  and  found  at  last  its  embodiment  in 
a  new  German  empire  with  a  liberal  constitution  and  a  national 
parliament.  But  this  great  result  was  brought  about  by  great 
events  and  achievements  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia  against 
foreign  aggression.  The  first  step  was  the  brilliant  victory  of 
Prussia  over  Austria  at  Koniggratz,  which  resulted  in  the  for- 

528),  he  writes,  "Pow  le  papeje  suis  C&ariemagne,  paree  que  wmme  Charlemagne 
je  r&mis  la  couronne  de  France  *  ceUe  des  Zom&orda  et  que  mo»  empire  confine  avec 
t  Orient."  Quoted  by  Bryce. 


{  68.  SUBVEY  OP  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       263 

mation  of  the  North  German  Confederation  (1866).  The  second 
step  was  the  still  more  remarkable  triumph  of  united  Germany 
in  a  war  of  self-defence  against  the  empire  of  Napoleon  III., 
which  ended  in  the  proclamation  of  William  I.  as  German 
emperor  by  the  united  wishes  of  the  German  princes  and  peoples 
in  the  palace  of  Louis  XIV.  at  Versailles  (1870). 

Thus  the  long  dream  of  the  German  nation  was  fulfilled 
through  a  series  of  the  most  brilliant  military  and  diplomatic 
victories  recorded  in  modern  history,  by  the  combined  genius  of 
Bismarck,  Moltke,  and  William,  and  the  valor,  discipline,  and 
intelligence  of  the  German  army. 

Simultaneously  with  this  German  movement,  Italy  under  tie 
lead  of  Cavour  and  Victor  Emmanuet,  achieved  her  national 
unity,  with  Borne  as  the  political  capital. 

But  the  new  German  empire  is  not  a  continuation  or  revival 
of  the  old.  It  differs  from  it  in  several  essential  particulars.  It 
is  the  result  of  popular  national  aspiration  and  of  a  war  of  self- 
defence,  not  of  conquest;  it  is  based  on  the  predominance  of 
Prussia  and  North  Germany,  not  of  Austria  and  South  Ger- 
many ;  it  is  hereditary,  not  elective ;  it  is  controlled  by  modern 
ideas  of  liberty  and  progress,  not  by  mediaeval  notions  and  insti- 
tutions ;  it  is  essentially  Protestant,  and  not  Eoman  Catholic ;  it 
is  a  German,  not  a  Eoman  empire.  Its  rise  is  indirectly  con- 
nected with  the  simultaneous  downfall  of  the  temporal  power  of 
the  pope,  who  is  the  hereditary  and  unchangeable  enemy  both  of 
German  and  Italian  unity  and  freedom.  The  new  empire  is 
independent  of  the  church,  and  has  officially  no  connection  with 
religion,  resembling  in  this  respect  the  government  of  the 
United  States ;  but  its  Protestant  animus  appears  not  only  in  the 
hereditary  religion  of  the  first  emperor,  but  also  in  the  expulsion 
of  the  Jesuits  (1872),  and  the  "CulturkainpP  against  the  poli- 
tico-hierarchical aspirations  of  the  ultramontane  papacy.  When 
Pius  IX.,  in  a  letter  to  William  I.  (1873),  claimed  a  sort  of 
jurisdiction  over  all  baptized  Christians,  the  emperor  courteously 
informed  the  infallible  pope  that  he,  with  all  Protestants,  recog- 


264  FOURTH  PEKIOD.    A.  IX  590-1049. 

nized  no  other  mediator  between  God  and  man  but  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  The  new  German  empire  will  and  ought 
to  do  full  justice  to  the  Catholic  church,  but  "  will  never  go  to 
Canossa." 

We  pause  at  the  close  of  a  long  and  weighty  chapter  in 
history ;  we  wonder  what  the  next  chapter  will  be. 

§  59.  The  Papacy  and  the  Empire  from  the  Death  of  Charle- 
magne to  Nicolas  I.  (A.  D.  814-858).    Note  on  the 
Myth  of  the  Papess  Joan. 

The  power  of  Charlemagne  was  personal.  Under  his  weak 
successors  the  empire  fell  to  pieces,  and  the  creation  of  his  genius 
was  buried  in  chaotic  confusion;  but  the  idea  survived.  His 
son  and  successor,  Louis  the  Pious,  as  the  Germans  and  Italians 
called  him,  or  Louis  the  Gentle  (le  debonnaire)  in  French  his- 
tory (814-840),  inherited  the  piety,  and  some  of  the  valor  and 
legislative  wisdom,  but  not  the  genius  and  energy,  of  his  father. 
He  was  a  devoted  and  superstitious  servant  of  the  clergy.  He 
began  with  reforms,  he  dismissed  his  father's  concubines  and 
daughters  with  their  paramours  from  the  court,  turned  the 
palace  into  a  monastery,  and  promoted  the  Scandinavian  mission 
of  St.  Ansgar.  In  the  progress  of  his  reign,  especially  after  his 
second  marriage  to  the  ambitious  Judith,  he  showed  deplorable 
weakness  and  allowed  his  empire  to  decay,  while  he  wasted  his 
time  between  monkish  exercises  and  field-sports  in  the  forest  of 
the  Ardennes.  He  unwisely  shared  his  rule  with  his  three  sons, 
who  soon  rebelled  against  their  father  and  engaged  in  fraternal 
waxs. 

After  his  death  the  treaty  of  Verdun  was  concluded  in  843 
By  this  treaty  the  empire  was  divided;  Lothair  received  Italy 
with  the  title  of  emperor,  France  fell  to  Charles  the  Bald,  Ger- 
many to  Louis  the  German.  Thus  Charlemagne's  conception  of 
a  Western  empire  that  should  be  commensurate  with  the  Latin 
church  was  destroyed,  or  at  least  greatly  contracted,  and  the 


2  59.  THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  EMPIEE.  A.  D.  814-858.  265 

three  countries  have  henceforth  a  separate  history.  This  was 
better  for  the  development  of  nationality.  The  imperial  dignity 
was  afterwards  united  with  the  German  crown,  and  continued 
under  this  modified  form  till  1806. 

During  this  civil  commotion  the  papacy  had  no  distinguished 
representative,  but  upon  the  whole  profited  by  it.  Some  of  the 
popes  evaded  the  imperial  sanction  of  their  election.  The 
French  clergy  forced  the  gentle  Louis  to  make  at  Soissons  a  most 
humiliating  confession  of  guilt  for  all  the  slaughter,  pillage,  and 
sacrilege  committed  during  the  civil  wars,  and  for  bringing  the 
empire  to  the  brink  of  ruin.  Thus  the  hierarchy  assumed  con- 
trol even  over  the  civil  misconduct  of  the  sovereign  and  imposed 
ecclesiastical  penance  for  it. 

NOTE.     THE  MYTH  OP  JOHANNA  PAPISSA. 

We  must  make  a  passing  mention  of  the  curious  and  mysterious  myth 
of  papess  Johanna,  who  is  said  during  this  period  between  Leo  IV-  (847) 
and  Benedict  IIL  (855)  to  have  worn  the  triple  crown  for  two  years  and 
a  half.  She  was  a  lady  of  Mayence  (her  name  is  variously  called  Agnes, 
Gilberta,  Johanna,  Jutta),  studied  in  disguise  philosophy  in  Athens 
(where  philosophy  had  long  before  died  out),  taught  theology  in 
Rome,  under  the  name  of  Johannes  Anglicus,  and  was  elevated  to  the 
papal  dignity  as  John  VIII.,  but  died  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of 
her  sex  by  a  sudden  confiaenTent  in  the  open  street  during  a  solemn  pro- 
cession from  the  Vatican  to  the  Lateran.  According  to  another  tradition 
she  was  tied  to  the  hoof  of  a  horse,  dragged  outside  of  the  city  and  stoned 
to  death  by  the  people,  and  the  inscription  was  put  on  her  grave : 

"Faroe  pater  pa&nm  papi&MB  edcre  partum" 

The  strange  story  originated  in  Eome,  and  was  first  circulated  by  the 
Dominicans  and  Minorites,  and  acquired  general  credit  in  the  13th  and 
14th  centuries.  Pope  John  XX.  (1276)  called  himself  John  XXL  In 
the  beginning  of  the  15th  century  the  bust  of  this  woman-pope  was 
placed  alongside  with  the  busts  of  the  other  popes  at  Sienna,  and  nobody 
took  offence  at  it.  Even  Chancellor  Gerson  used  the  story  as  an  argu- 
ment that  the  church  could  err  in  matter?  of  fact.  At  the  Council  in 
Constance  it  was  used  against  the  popes.  Torrecremata,  the  upholder  of 
papal  despotism,  draws  from  it  the  lesson  that  if  the  church  can  stand  a 
woman-pope,  she  might  stand  the  still  greater  evil  of  a  heretical  pope. 

Nevertheless  the  story  is  undoubtedly  a  mere  fiction,  and  is  so  regarded 
by  nearly  all  modern  historians,  Protestant  as  well  as  Roman  Catholic. 


266  FOURTH  PEKLOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

It  is  not  mentioned  till  four  hundred  years  later  by  Stephen,  a  French 
Dominican  (who  died  1261).1  It  was  unknown  to  Photius  and  the  bitter 
Greek  polemics  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  who  would  not 
have  missed  the  opportunity  to  make  use  of  it  as  an  argument  against  the 
papacy.  There  is  no  gap  in  the  election  of  the  popes  between  Leo  and 
Benedict,  who,  according  to  contemporary  historians,  was  canonically 
elected  three  days  after  the  death  of  Leo  IV.  (which  occurred  July  17th, 
855},  or  at  all  events  in  the  same  month,  and  consecrated  two  months 
after  (Sept.  29th).  See  Jane,  Regtsta,  p.  235.  The  myth  was  probably  an 
allegory  or  satire  on  the  monstrous  government  of  women  (Theodora  and 
Marozia)  over  several  licentious  popes — Sergius  III.,  John  X.,  XI.,  and 
XH. — in  the  tenth  century.  So  Heumann,  Schrockh,  Gibbon,  Neander. 
The  only  serious  objection  to  this  solution  is  that  the  myth  would  be 
displaced  from  the  ninth  to  the  tenth  century. 

Other  conjectures  are  these :  The  myth  of  the  female  pope  was  a  satire 
on  John  Yin.  for  his  softness  in  dealing  with  Photius  (Baronius) ;  the 
misunderstanding  of  a  fact  that  some  foreign  bishop  (pontifex)  in  Borne 
was  really  a  woman  in  disguise  (Leibnitz) ;  the  papess  was  a  widow  of 
Leo  IV.  (Kist) ;  a  misinterpretation  of  the  stella  stercoraria  (Schmidt) ;  a 
satirical  allegory  on  the  origin  and  circulation  of  the  false  decretals  of 
Isidor  (Henke  and  Gfrorer) ;  an  impersonation  of  the  great  whore  of  the 
Apocalypse,  and  the  popular  expression  of  the  belief  that  the  mystery  of 
iniquity  was  working  in  the  papal  court  (Baring-Gould). 

David  Blondel,  first  destroyed  the  credit  of  this  mediaeval  fiction, 
in  his  learned  French  dissertation  on  the  subject  (Amsterdam,  1649). 
Spanheim  defended  it,  and  Mosheim  credited  it  much  to  his  discredit  as 
an  historian.  See  the  elaborate  discussion  of  DSLLINGER,  Papst-Fabeln 
des  MMeMters,  2d  ed.  Munchen,  1863  (Engl.  transl.  K  Y.,  1872,  pp.  4r-58 
and  pp.  430-437).  Comp.  also  BiANCHi-Giovrzn,  Esame  critico  degti  atti 
edocumenti  della  papessa  Giovanna,  Mil.  1845,  and  the  long  note  of  GlE- 
SELEB,  IL  30-32  (N.  Y.  ed.),  which  sums  up  the  chief  data  in  the  case. 

§  60.  The  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals. 

I.    SOURCES. 

The  only  older  ed.  of  Pseudo-Isidor  is  that  of  JACOB  MERLE?  in  the  first 
part  of  his  Collection  of  General  Councils,  Paris,  1523,  Col. ,  1530,  etc., 
reprinted  in  Migne's  Patirol.  Tom.  CXXX.,  Paris,  1853. 

1  The  oldest  testimony  in  the  almost  contemporary  "Liber  PontificaJis"  of 
Anastasins  is  wanting  in  the  best  manuscripts,  and  must  be  a  later  interpola- 
tion. Dollinger  shows  that  the  myth,  although  it  may  have  circulated  earlier 
In  the  mouth  of  the  people,  was  not  definitely  pot  into  writing  before  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century. 


g  60.  THE  PSEU3X)-ISIDOEIAN  DECRETALS.  267 

Far  superior  is  the  modern  ed.  of  P.  HESTSCHIUS  :  Decretales  Pseudo-Isido 
riancB  et  ChpfMa  Angilramni.  Lips.  1863.  The  only  critical  edn 
taken  from  the  oldest  and  best  MSS.  Comp.  his  Oommentatw  de  Col 
lectione  Isidori  Merccdoris  in  this  ed.  pp.  xi-ccxxxviii. 

II.    LITEBATUBE. 

DAV.  BLONDEL:  Pseudo-Mdorus  et  Turrianus  vapulantes.    Genev.  1628. 

F.  KNTJST:  De  Fontibus  et  Chnsttio  &eudo-l$idorian(B  cottectionis.    Gott. 

1832. 
A.  MOHLEB  (B.  O.) :  Fragmente  CMS  und  uber  Isidor,  in  his  "  Yermischte 

Schriften"  (ed.  by  Dollinger,  Begensb.  1839),  L  285  sqq. 
H.  WASSEBSCHLEBEN  :  JBeitragezwr  Gesch.  derfalschen  Decret.  Breslau, 

1844.    Comp.  also  his  art.  in  Herzog. 
C.  Jos.  HEFELE  (E.  0.):  Die  pseudo-mdor.  Wage,  in  the  "Tubinger 

Quartalschriffc,"  1847. 
GFB6BEB :  Alter,  Ursprung,  Zweck  der  Decretalen,  des  falschen  Isidorus. 

Freib.  1848. 
JUL.  WEIZSACZEB  :  Mnkmar  und  Pseudo-Mdor,  in  Niedner' s  "  Zeitschrift 

fur  histor.  TheoL,"  for  1858,  and  Die  pseudo-wd.  Frage,  in  Sybel's 

"Hist.  Zeitschrift,"  1860. 
0.  VON  "NbOBDEHr:  Ebo,  Hinkmar  und  Pseudo-Isidor,  in  Sybel's  "Hist. 

Zeitschriffc,"  1862. 

D5LMNGEB  in  Janus,  1869.  It  appeared  in  several  editions  and  languages. 
FEBD.  WAMEB  (E.  C.) :  Lehrbuch  des  KLrchenrecMs  aUer  christi.  Cbn- 

fessionen.   Bonn  (1822),  13th  ed.  1861.   The  same  transl.  into  French, 

Italian,  and  Spanish. 
J.  W.  BICKELL  :  GeschicMe  des  Eirchenrechts.    Giessen,  1843,  1849. 

G.  PHILLIPS  (E.  C.):  Evrchenrecht.    Eegensburg  (1845),  3rd  ed.  1857 
sqq.  6  vols.  (till  1864).    His  Lehrbuch,  1859,  P.  II.  1862. 

Jo.  FB.  vow  SCHITLTE  (E.  C.,  since  1870  Old  Oath.) :  Das  Katholische 

ffirchenrecht.    Giessen,  P.  L  1860.    Lehrbuch,  1873.    Die  Geschichte 

der  Quellen  und  Ltteratur  des  Canonischen  Reckts  von  Gratian  bis  auf 

die  Gegenwart.    Stuttgart,  1875  sqq.  3  vols. 
AEM.  L.  EICHTEB:  Lehrbuch  des  forth,  und  evang.  Evrchenreehts.    Leipz., 

sixth  ed.  by  Dove,  1867  (onPsendo-Isidor,  pp.  10^-133). 
HENBY  C.  LEA  :  Studies  in  Church  History.    Philad.  1869  (p.  43-102  on 

the  False  Decretals). 
FBIEDB.  MAASSEST  (E.  0.) :  Geschiehie  der  Quellen  und  d.  IMerafar  dea 

canonischen  Rechts  im  Abendlande.  1st  vol.,  Gratz,  1870. 
Comp.  also  for  the  whole  history  the  great  work  of  F.  0.  VOK  SAVIGNY: 

Geschichfe  des  JKom.  Rechts  im  Mtetdatter.  Heidelb.  2nd  ed.  1834-'51, 

7  vols. 
Bee  also  the  Lit.  in  voL  n.  §  67. 

During  the  chaotic  confusion  under  the  Carolingians,  in  the 


268  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

middle  of  the  ninth  century,  a  mysterious  book  made  its  appear- 
ance, which  gave  legal  expression  to  the  popular  opinion  of  the 
papacy,  raised  and  strengthened  its  power  more  than  any  other 
agency,  and  forms  to  a  large  extent  the  basis  of  the  canon  law  of 
the  church  of  Borne.  This  is  a  collection  of  ecclesiastical  laws 
under  the  false  name  of  bishop  ISIDOR  of  Seville  (died  636), 
hence  called  the  te  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals*"1  He  was  the 
reputed  (though  not  the  real)  author  of  an  earlier  collection, 
based  upon  that  of  the  Roman  abbot,  Dionysius  Exiguus, 
in  the  sixth  century,  and  used  as  the  law-book  of  the  church 
in  Spain,  hence  called  the  "Hispana."  In  these  earlier 
collections  the  letters  and  decrees  (Epistofa  Decretcdes)  of  the 
popes  from  the  time  of  Siricius  (384)  occupy  a  prominent  place.2 
A  decretal  in  the  canonical  sense  is  an  authoritative  rescript  of  a 
pope  in  reply  to  some  question,3  while  a  decree  is  a  papal  ordi- 
nance enacted  with  the  advice  of  the  Cardinals,  without  a  pre- 
vious inquiry,  A  canon  is  a  law  ordained  by  a  general  or  pro- 
vincial synod.  A  dogma  is  an  ecclesiastical  law  relating  to 
doctrine.  The  earliest  decretals  had  moral  rather  than  legisla- 
tive force.  But  as  the  questions  anl  appeals  to  the  pope  multi- 
plied, the  papal  answers  grew  in  authority.  Fictitious  docu- 
ments, canons,  and  decretals  were  nothing  new ;  but  the  Pseudo- 
Isidorian  collection  is  the  most  colossal  and  effective  fraud  known 
in  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  literature. 

1.  The  cQid&ds  of  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals.     The 

1The  preface  begins:  "Isidorus  Mercator  servus  Christi  lectori  conserve  suo 
€t  pcurenti  SMO  in  Domino  fddi  (aJL.  fdei)  salutem.'  The  byname  "Mercator," 
which  is  found  in  30  of  the  oldest  codices,  is  so  far  unexplained.  Some  refer 
it  to  Marias  Mercator,  a  learned  occidental  layman  residing  in  Constantino- 
ple, who  wrote  against  Pelagius  and  translated  ecclesiastical  records  which 
pseudo-Jsidorus  made  use  of.  Others  regard  it  as  a  mistake  for  "Peccator" 
(a  title  of  humility  frequently  used  by  priests  and  bishops,  e.  g.  by  St.  Patrick 
in  his  "Confession"),  which  is  found  in  3  copies.  "Mercatus"  also  occurs  in 
several  copies,  and  this  would  be  equivalent  to  redemptus,  u  Isidorus,  the  re- 
deemed servant  of  Christ."  See  Hinschius  and  Bichter,  I  c. 

2  The  original  name  was  decretcde  consttiwfam  or  decretatis  episfofa,  afterwards 
dtcrctalis.  See  Bichter,  2.  c.  p.  80. 


§  60.  THE  PSEUDO-ISIDOEIAN  DECRETALS.  269 

book  is  divided  into  three  parts.  The  first  part  contains  fifty 
Apostolical  Canons  from  the  collection  of  Dionysius,  sixty 
spurious  decretals  of  the  Eoman  bishops  from  Clement  (d.  101) 
to  Melchiades  (d.  314).  The  second  part  comprehends  the 
forged  document  of  the  donation  of  Constantine,  some  tracts 
concerning  the  Council  of  Mcaea,  and  the  canons  of  the  Greek, 
African,  Gallic,  and  Spanish  Councils  down  to  683,  from  the 
Spanish  collection.  The  third  part,  after  a  preface  copied  from 
the  Hispana,  gives  in  chronological  order  the  decretals  of  the 
popes  from  Sylvester  (d.  335)  to  Gregory  II.  (d.  731),  among 
which  thirty-five  are  forged,  including  all  before  Damasus ;  but 
the  genuine  letters  also,  which  are  taken  from  the  Isidorian  col- 
lection, contain  interpolations.  In  many  editions  the  Gapituila 
Angttramni  are  appended* 

All  these  documents  make  up  a  manual  of  orthodox  doctrine 
and  clerical  discipline.  They  give  dogmatic  decisions  against 
heresies,  especially  Arianism  (which  lingered  long  in  Spain),  and 
directions  on  worship,  the  sacraments,  feasts  and  fasts,  sacred 
rites  and  costumes,  the  consecration  of  churches,  church  property, 
and  especially  on  church  polity.  The  work  breathes  throughout 
the  spirit  of  churchly  and  priestly  piety  and  reverence. 

2.  The  sacerdotal  system.  Pseudo-Isidor  advocates  the  papal 
theocracy.  The  clergy  is  a  divinely  instituted,  consecrated,  and 
inviolable  caste,  mediating  between  God  and  the  people,  as  in  the 
Jewish  dispensation.  The  priests  are  the  "familiares  Dei'7  the 
€€  spirituales"  the  laity  the  "caraafes."  He  who  sins  against 
them  sins  against  God.  They  are  subject  to  no  earthly  tribunal, 
and  responsible  to  God  alone,  who  appointed  them  judges  of 
men.  The  privileges  of  tihe  priesthood  culminate  in  the  episco- 
pal dignity,  and  the  episcopal  dignity  culminates  in  the  papacy. 
The  cathedra  Petri  is  the  fountain  of  all  power.  Without  the 
consent  of  the  pope  no  bishop  can  be  deposed,  no  council  be 
convened.  He  is  the  ultimate  umpire  of  all  controversy,  and 
from  him  there  is  no  appeal.  He  is  often  called  "ep&coptw 
universdlis"  notwithstanding  the  protest  of  Gregory  I. 


270  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

3.  The  aim  of  Pseudo-Isidor  is,  by  such  a  collection  of  autho- 
ritative decisions  to  protect  the  clergy  against  the  secular  power 
and  against  moral  degeneracy.    The  power  of  the  metropolitans 
is  rather  lowered  in  order  to  secure  to  the  pope  the  definitive 
sentence  in  the  trials  of  bishops.    But  it  is  manifestly  wrong  if 
older  writers  have  put  the  chief  aim  of  the  work  in  the  elevation 
of  the  papacy.    The  papacy  appears  rather  as  a  means  for  the 
protection  of  episcopacy  in  its  conflict  with  the  civil  government. 
It  is  the  supreme  guarantee  of  the  rights  of  the  bishops. 

4.  The  genuineness  of  Pseudo-Isidor  was  not  doubted  during 
the  middle  ages  (BGncmar  only  denied  the  legal  application  to 
the  French  church),  but  is  now  universally  given  up  by  Eoman 
Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant  historians. 

The  forgery  is  apparent.  It  is  inconceivable  that  Dionysius 
Exiguus,  who  lived  in  Kome,  should  have  been  ignorant  of  such 
a  large  number  of  papal  letters.  The  collection  moreover  is  full 
of  anachronisms :  Eoman  bishops  of  the  second  and  third  centu- 
ries write  in  the  Franfrish  Latin  of  the  ninth  century  on  doctri- 
nal topics  in  the  spirit  of  the  post-Nicene  orthodoxy  and  on 
mediaeval  relations  in  church  and  state;  they  quote  the  Bible 
after  the?  version  of  Jerome  as  amended  under  Charlemagne; 
Victor  addresses  Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  who  lived  two  hun- 
dred years  later,  on  the  paschal  controversies  of  the  second 
century*1 

The  Donation  of  Constantine^  which  is  incorporated  in  this 
collection,  is  an  older  forgery,  and  exists  also  in  several  Greek 
texts.  It  affirms  that  Constantino,  when  he  was  baptized  by 

1  The  forgery  was  first  suggested  by  Nicolaus  de  Cusa,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  Calvin  (JSwfc  IV.  7, 11,  20),  and  then  proved  by  the  Magdeburg  Centuries, 
and  more  conclusively  by  the  Calvinistic  divine  David  Blondel  (1628)  against 
the  attempted  vindication  of  the  Jesuit  Torres  (Tumanus,  1572).  The  brothers 
Ballerini,  Baronius,  Bellarmin,  Theiner,  Walter,  Mohler,  Hefele,  and  other 
Eoman  Catholic  scholars  admit  the  forgery,  but  usually  try  to  mitigate  it  and 
to  underrate  the  originality  and  influence  of  Pseudo-Isidor.  Some  Protestant 
divines  have  erred  in  the  opposite  direction  (as  Eichter  justly  observes,  L  c. 
p.  117). 


2  60.  THE  PSEUDO-ISIBOBIAN  DECEETALS.  271 

pope  Sylvester,  A.  D.  324  (he  was  not  baptized  till  337,  by  the 
Arian  bishop  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia),  presented  him  with  the 
Lateran  palace  and  all  imperial  insignia,  together  with  the 
Eoman  and  Italian  territory.1  The  object  of  this  forgery  was  to 
antedate  by  five  centuries  the  temporal  power  of  the  papacy, 
which  rests  on  the  donations  of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne.2  The 
only  foundation  in  fact  is  the  donation  of  the  Lateran  palace, 
which  was  originally  the  palace  of  the  Lateran  family,  then  of 
the  emperors,  and  last  of  the  popes.  The  wife  of  Constantine, 
Fausta,  resided  in  it,  and  on  the  transfer  of  the  seat  of  empire  to 
Constantinople,  he  left  it  to  Sylvester,  as  the  chief  of  the  Roman 
clergy  and  nobility.  Hence  it  contains  to  this  day  the  pontifical 
throne  with  the  inscription :  "Hose  est  pa/palis  sedes  et  pontiff- 
calis"  There  the  pope  takes  possession  of  the  see  of  Rome. 
But  the  whole  history  of  Constantine  and  his  successors  shows 
conclusively  that  they  had  no  idea  of  transferring  any  part  of 
their  temporal  sovereignty  to  the  Roman  pontiff., 

5.  The  authorship  must  be  assigned  to  some  ecclesiastic  of  the 
Frankish  church,  probably  of  the  diocese  of  Rheims,  between 
847  and  865  (or  857),  but  scholars  differ  as  to  the  writer.3 

1  "Dominis  meis  beatissimis  Petro  et  Paulo,  etper  eos  etiam  beato  Sylvesfro  Patri 


pvntificibus .  .  .  concedimus  pcdatium  imperil  nostri  Lateranense  .  .  .  ddnde  did- 
demo,  videlicet  coronam  capitis  nostn  simulque  pallium,  vel  m&ram  .  .  .  et  omnia 
imperialia  indumenta  .  .  .  et  imperialia  sceplra  .  .  .  et  omnem  possessionem,  im- 
p&rialis  cufminis  et  gloriam  potestatis  nostrce.  .  .  Unde  ut  pontificalia  apex  non 
vtteswt,  sedmagis  amplius  guam  terreni  imperil  digntias  et  glories  potentia,  dewretwr, 
ecce  tam  pcdatium  nostrum,  ut  prcedictum  est,  quamque  Eomance  vobis  et  omnes 
Italia  seu  occidentalium  regionum  provmtias,  loco,  et  civitates  beatissimo  pontifei 
nosfro, Sylvestro  unwersati papce, concedimus  atque  relinquimvs"  In Migne,  Tom. 
130,  p.  249  sq. 

2  That  Constantine  made  donations  to  Sylvester  on  occasion  of  his  pretended 
baptism  is  related  first  in  the  Ada  Sylvestrij  then  by  Hadrian  L  in  a  letter  to 
Charlemagne  (780).  In  the  ninth  century  the  spurious  document  appeared. 
The  sporiousness  was  perceived  as  early  as  999  by  the  emperor  Otho  III.  and 
proven  by  Laurentius  Valla  about  1440  in  De  /also  credita  et  ementtia  Omstcun- 
tini  donatione.  The  document  is  universally  given  up  as  a  fiction,  though 
Baronins  defended  the  donation  itself. 

1  The  following  persons  have  been  suggested  as  authors:  Benedictus  Levita 


272  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Pseudo-Isidor  literally  quotes  passages  from  a  Paris  Council  of 
829,  and  agrees  in  part  with  the  collection  of  Benedictus  Levita, 
completed  in  847 ;  on  the  other  hand  he  is  first  quoted  by  a 
French  Synod  at  Chiersy  in  857,  and  then  by  Hincmar  of  Kheims 
repeatedly  since  859.  All  the  manuscripts  are  of  French  ori- 
gin. The  complaints  of  ecclesiastical  disorders,  depositions  of 
bishops  without  trial,  frivolous  divorces,  frequent  sacrilege,  suit 
best  the  period  of  the  civil  wars  among  the  grandsons  of  Charle- 
magne. In  Rome  the  Decretals  were  first  known  and  quoted 
in  865  by  pope  Nicolaus  I.1 

From  the  same  period  and  of  the  same  spirit  are  several  col- 
lections of  Cajntula  or  Capitularia,  i.  e.,  of  royal  ecclesiastical 
ordinances  which  under  the  Carolingians  took  the  place  of 
synodical  decisions.  Among  these  we  mention  the  collection  of 
Ansegis,  abbot  of  Fontenelles  (827),  of  Benedictus  Levita  of 
Mayence  (847),  and  the  Capitula  Angilramni,  falsely  ascribed 
to  bishop  Angilramnus  of  Metz  (d.  701). 

6.  Significance  of  Pseudo-Isidor.  It  consists  not  so  much  in 
the  novelty  of  the  views  and  claims  of  the  mediaeval  priesthood, 
but  in  tracing  them  back  from  the  ninth  to  the  third  and  second 
centuries,  and  stamping  them  with  the  authority  of  antiquity. 

(Beacon)  of  Mayence,  whose  ChpMari'im  of  about  847  agrees  in  several  pas- 
sages literally  with  the  Decretals  (Blonde!,  Enust,  Walter) ;  Kothad  of  Soissons 
(Phillips,  Gfrorer) ;  Otgar,  archbishop  of  Mayence,  who  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  clerical  rebellion  against  Louis  the  Pious  (BaUerinii,  Wasserschleben) ; 
Ebo>  archbishop  of  jRheims,  the  predecessor  of  Hincmar  and  leader  in  that 
rebellion,  or  some  unknown  ecclesiastic  in  that  diocese  (Weizsacker,  yon  Nbor- 
den,  Hinschius,  Eichter,  Baxmann).  The  repetitions  suggest  a  number  of 
authors  and  a  gradual  growth. 

1  Nicolai  L  JSpist.  ad  universes  episcopos  CkdUae,  ann.  865  (Mansi  xv.  p.  694 
gq.):  "Deeretaks  epistofa  Bom.  Pvntificwm  sunt  retipiendos,  etiamsi  non  mnt 
isamowm  eodici  compaginate  :  quoniam  inter  ipsos  canones  unum  b.  Leonis  captiu- 
Iwn  constat  esse  penmtetom,  qw  omma,  decretalia  constitute  sedls  apostolicce  custodiri 
mandantwr. — Itaque  mhil  interest^  vtnw  smt  omma  decretalia,  sedis  a/post,  constitute 
inter  canones  concttiorum  tmmiito,  cum,  omnia,  m  uno  corpore  compaginare  non 
possmt,  et^eis  intermit,  g^j^^ 

— Sanctus  Gdasvus  (quogue)  non  dfatt  susdpiendas  decrekdes  cpistolas  guae  inter 
canones  Jiab&ntur,  nee  tomtom  qua*  moderni  pontifices  ediderunt,  sed  qua*  bcatissimi 
Papa  diversis  temporibv*  ab  urbe  Bomb  dederunt? 


{  61.  NieCEAS  I ,  APBIL,  858-SOV.  13,  867.  273 

Some  of  the  leading  principles  had  indeed  been  already  asserted 
in  the  letters  of  Leo  I.  and  other  documents  of  the  fifth  century, 
yea  the  papal  animus  may  be  traced  to  Victor  in  the  second 
century  and  to  the  Judaizing  opponents  of  St.  Paul.  But  in 
this  collection  the  entire  hierarchical  and  sacerdotal  system, 
which  was  the  growth  of  several  centuries,  appears  as  something 
complete  and  unchangeable  from  the  very  beginning.  We  have 
a  parallel  phenomenon  in  the  Apostolic  Constitutions  and  Canons 
which  gather  into  one  whole  the  ecclesiastical  decisions  of  the 
first  three  centuries,  and  trace  them  directly  to  the  apostles  or 
their  disciple,  Clement  of  Borne. 

Pseudo-Isidorus  was  no  doubt  a  sincere  believer  in  the 
hierarchical  system ;  nevertheless  his  collection  is  to  a  large  ex- 
tent a  conscious  high  church  fraud,  and  must  as  such  be  traced  to 
the  father  of  lies.  It  belongs  to  the  Satanic  element  in  the 
histoiy  of  the  Christian  hierarchy,  which  has  as  little  escaped 
temptation  and  contamination  as  the  Jewish  hierarchy. 

§  61.  Nicolas  I.,  April,  858-JVbi?.  13,  867. 

L  The  Epistles  of  NICOLAS  L  in  Mansi's  Owe.  XV.,  and  in  Migne's 

Patrol.  Tom.  CXIX.    Comp.  also  JAPPE,  JRegesta,  pp.  237-254 
HrsrcMAM  (Skemensis  Archiepiscopi)  Oper.  Omnia.    In  Migne's  PctfroL 

Tom.  125  and  126.  An  older  ed.  by  J.  Sinnond,  Par.  1645, 2  vols.  foL 
Hugo  LAMMER:  NiJcolaus  L  und  die  Byzantinische  jStaatskirche  seiner 

ZeU.    Berlin,  1857. 
A.  THIEL  :  JDe  Nicolao  Papa.  Comment.  du&  hist.  canoniccB.    Brnnzberg, 

1859. 

VAK  NOORDENT  :  JEfincmar,  Erzbischof  von  Eheims.    Bonn,  1863. 
HEBGEBTKOTHER  (E.  C.  Prof,  at  Wuizbm^,  now  Cardinal) :   Photius. 

E^ensbuxg,  1867-1869,  3  yols. 
Comp.  BAXMANK  H.  1-29;  MILMAN,  Book  V.  cL  4  (vol.  IU.  24-d6) ; 

HEFELE,    Cmdliengesch.   vol.  IV.,  (2nd  ed.),  228  sqq;  and  other 

works  quoted  \  48. 

By  a  remarkable  coincidence  the  publication  of  the  Psendo- 
Isidorian  Decretals  synchronized  with  the  appearance  of  a  pope 
who  had  the  ability  and  opportunity  to  carry  the  principles  of 
the  Decretals  into  practical  effect,  and  the  good  fortune  to  do  it 


274  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

in  the  service  of  justice  and  virtue.  So  long  as  the  usurpation 
of  divine  power  was  used'  against  oppression  and  vice,  it  com- 
manded veneration  and  obedience,  and  did  more  good  than  harm. 
It  was  only  the  pope  who  in  those  days  could  claim  a  superior 
authority  in  dealing  with  haughty  and  oppressive  metropolitans, 
synods,  kings  and  emperors. 

Nicolas  I.  is  the  greatest  pope,  we  may  say  the  only  great 
pope  between  Gregory  I.  and  Gregory  VII.  He  stands  between 
them  as  one  of  three  peaks  of  a  lofty  mountain,  separated  from 
the  lower  peak  by  a  plane,  and  from  the  higher  peak  by  a  deep 
valley.  He  appeared  to  his  younger  contemporaries  as  a  "  new 
Elijah,"  who  ruled  the  world  like  a  sovereign  of  divine  appoint- 
ment, terrible  to  the  evil-doer  whether  prince  or  priest,  yet  mild 
to  the  good  and  obedient.  He  was  elected  less  by  the  influence 
of  the  clergy  than  of  the  emperor  Louis  IL,  and  consecrated  in 
his  presence ;  he  lived' with  him  on  terms  of  friendship,  and  was 
treated  in  turn  with  great  deference  to  his  papal  dignity.  He 
anticipated  Hildebrand  in  the  lofty  conception  of  his  office ;  and 
his  energy  and  boldness  of  character  corresponded  with  it.  The 
pope  was  in  his  view  the  divinely  appointed  superintendent  of 
the  whole  church  for  the  maintenance  of  order,  discipline  and 
righteousness,  and  the  punishment  of  wrong  and  vice,  with  the 
aid  of  the  bishops  as  his  executive  organs.  He  assumed  an  im- 
perious tone  towards  the  Carolingians.  He  regarded  the  impe- 
rial crown  a  grant  of  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter  for  the  protection  of 
Christians  against  infidels.  The  empire  descended  to  Louis  by 
hereditary  right,  but  was  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  the 
apostolic  see. 

The  pontificate  of  Nicolas  was  marked  by  three  important 
events :  the  controversy  with  Photius,  the  prohibition  of  the 
divorce  of  King  Lothair,  and  the  humiliation  of  archbishop 
Hincmar.  In  the  first  he  failed,  in  the  second  and  third  he 
achieved  a  moral  triumph. 


2  61.  NICOLAS  I,  APBIL,  858-NOV.  13,  867.  275 

NICOLAS  AND  PHOTIUS. 

Ignatius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  of  imperial  descent  and 
of  austere  ascetic  virtue,  was  unjustly  deposed  and  banished  by 
the  emperor  Michael  III.  for  rebuking  the  immorality  of  Caesar 
Bardas,  but  he  refused  to  resign.  Photius,  the  greatest  scholar 
of  his  age,  at  home  in  almost  every  branch  of  knowledge  and 
letters,  was  elected  his  successor,  though  merely  a  layman,  and 
in  six  days  passed  through  the  inferior  orders  to  the  patriarchal 
dignity  (858).  The  two  parties  engaged  in  an  unrelenting  war- 
fare, and  excommunicated  each  other.  Photius  was  the  first  to 
appeal  to*  the  Eoman  pontiff.  Mcolas,  instead  of  acting  as 
mediator,  assumed  the  air  of  judge,  and  sent  delegates  to  Con- 
stantinople to  investigate  the  case  on  the  spot.  They  were  im- 
prisoned and  bribed  to  declare  for  Photius;  but  the  pope  annulled 
their  action  at  a  synod  in  Rome,  and  decided  in  favor  of  Igna- 
tius (863).  Photius  in  turn  pronounced  sentence  of  condemna- 
tion on  the  pope  and,  in  his  Encyclical  Letter,  gave  classical 
expression  to  the  objections  of  the  Greek  church  against  the 
Latin  (867).  The  controversy  resulted  in  the  permanent  aliena- 
tion of  the  two  churches.  It  was  the  last  instance  of  an  official 
interference  of  a  pope  in  the  affairs  of  the  Eastern  church. 

NICOLAS  AND  LOTHATR. 

Lothair  II.,  king  of  Lorraine  and  the  second  son  of  the 
emperor  Lothair,  maltreated  and  at  last  divorced  his  wife, 
Teutberga  of  Burgundy,  and  married  his  mistress,  Walrada,  who 
appeared  publicly  in  all  the  array  and  splendor  of  a  queen. 
Nicolas,  being  appealed  to  by  the  injured  lady,  defended  fear- 
lessly the  sacredness  of  matrimony;  he  annulled  the  decisions  of 
synods,  and  deposed  the  archbishops  of  Cologne  and  Treves  for 
conniving  at  the  immorality  of  their  sovereign.  He  threatened 
the  king  with  immediate  excommunication  if  he  did  not  dismiss 
the  concubine  and  receive  the  lawful  wife.  He  even  refused  to 
yield  when  Teutberga,  probably  under  compulsion,  asked  him  to 


276  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

grant  a  divorce.  Lothair,  after  many  equivocations,  yielded  at 
last  (865).  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the  complications  and 
disgusting  details  of  this  controversy. 

o  o  » 

KICOLAS  AOT)  HINCMAB. 

In  Ms  controversy  with  Hincmar,  Nicolas  was  a  protector  of 
the  bishops  and  lower  clergy  against  the  tyranny  of  metropoli- 
tans. Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  was  the  most  powerful 
prelate  of  France,  and  a  representative  of  the  principle  of  Galli- 
can  independence.  He  was  energetic,  but  ambitious  and  over- 
bearing. He  came  three  times  in  conflict  with  the  pope  on  the 
question  of  jurisdiction.  The  principal  case  is  that  of  Eothad, 
bishop  of  Soissons,  one  of  his  oldest  suflragans,  whom  he  de- 
posed without  sufficient  reason  and  put  into  prison,  with  the  aid 
of  Charles  the  Bald  (862).  The  pope  sent  his  legate  "  from  the 
side,"  Arsenius,  to  Charles,  and  demanded  the  restoration  of  the 
bishop.  He  argued  from  the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Sardica 
that  the  case  must  be  decided  by  Kome  even  if  Eothad  had  not 
appealed  to  him.  He  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the  bishops  by 
reminding  them  that  they  might  suffer  similar  injustice  from 
their  metropolitan,  and  that  their  only  refuge  was  in  the  com- 
mon protection  of  the  Roman  see.  Charles  desired  to  cancel  the 
process,  but  Nicolas  would  not  listen  to  it.  He  called  Rothad 
to  Rome,  reinstated  him  solemnly  in  the  church  of  St.  Maria 
Maggiore,  and  sent  him  back  in  triumph  to  France  (864).1 
Hincmar  murmured,  but  yielded  to  superior  power.2 

In  this  controversy  Nicolas  made  use  of  the  Pseudo-Isidorian 
Decretals,  a  copy  of  which  came  into  his  hands  probably  through 
Rothad.  He  thus  gave  them  the  papal  sanction ;  yet  he  must 
have  known  that  a  large  portion  of  this  forged  collection,  though 
claiming  to  proceed  from  early  popes,  did  not  exist  in  the  papal 
archives.  Hincmar  protested  against  the  validity  of  the  new 

1  JaflS,  246  and  247,  and  Mansi,  XV.  687  sqq. 

1  "Sothadwm  canamce  .  .  .  dgectom  et  a  Nwobu>  papa  non  regvfariter,  «cd 
potentialiter  restitutum."    See  Baxmann,  II.  26. 


\  62.  HADKLO  IL  AND  JOHN  V3H.   A.  D.  867-882.        277 

decretals  and  their  application  to  [France,  and  the  protest  lin- 
gered for  centuries  in  the  Galilean  liberties  till  they  were  finally 
buried  in  the  papal  absolutism  of  the  Vatican  Council  of  1870. 

§  62.  Hadrian  IL  and  John  VJIL    A.  D.  867  to  882. 

MAJSTSI:  Cbftc.  Tom.  XV.-XVH. 

MIGNE:  Patrol  Lot.  Tom.  CXXH.  1245  sqq.  (Hadrian  IL);   Tom. 
OXXVI.  647  sqq.  (John  VIII.)  ;  also  Tom.  CXXIX.,  pp.  823  sqq., 
and  1054  sqq.,  which  contain  the  writings  of  ATTXITJUS  and  Vui> 
GABIUS,  concerning  pope  Formosus. 
BARONTCTS:  Annal.  ad  ann.  867-882. 
:  Begesfa,  pp.  254r-292. 
:  Lot.  Christianity,  Book  V.,  chs.  5  and  6. 
:  Allg.  Kirckengesch.,  Bd.  III.  Abth.  2,  pp.  962  sqq. 
T:  Politik  der  Pdpste,  II.  29-57. 


For  nearly  two  hundred  years,  from  Nicolas  to  Hildebrand 
(867-1049),  the  papal  chair  was  filled,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, by  ordinary  and  even  unworthy  occupants. 

Hadrian  IL  (867-872)  and  John  VIII.  (872-882)  defended 
the  papal  power  with  the  same  zeal  as  Nicolas,  but  with  less 
ability,  dignity,  and  success,  and  not  so  much  in  the  interests  of 
morality  as  for  self-aggrandizement.  They  interfered  with  the 
political  quarrels  of  the  Carolingians,  and  claimed  the  right  of 
disposing  royal  and  imperial  crowns. 

Hadrian  was  already  sevenfy-five  years  of  age,  and  well  known 
for  great  benevolence,  when  he  ascended  the  throne  (he  was  born 
in  792).  He  inherited  from  Nicolas  the  controversies  with 
Photius,  Lothair,  and  Hincmar  of  Eheims,  but  was  repeatedly 
rebuffed.  He  suffered  also  a  personal  humiliation  on  account  of 
a  curious  domestic  tragedy.  He  had  been  previously  married, 
and  his  wife  (Stephania)  was  stall  living  at  the  time  of  his  eleva- 
tion. Eleutherius,  a  son  of  bishop  Ajsenius  (the  legate  of 
Nicolas),  carried  away  the  pope's  daughter  (an  old  maid  of  forty 
years,  who  was  engaged  to  another  man),  fled  to  the  emperor 
Louis,  and,  when  threatened  with  punishment,  murdered  both 
the  pope's  wife  and  daughter.  He  was  condemned  to  death. 


278  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

This  aflair  might  have  warned  the  popes  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  women ;  but  it  was  succeeded  by  worse  scenes. 

John  VIII.  was  an  energetic,  shrewd,  passionate,  and  in- 
triguing prelate,  meddled  with  all  the  affairs  of  Christendom 
from  Bulgaria  to  France  and  Spain,  crowned  two  insignificant 
Carolingian  emperors  (Charles  the  Bald,  875,  and  Charles  the 
Fat,  881),  dealt  very  freely  in  anathemas,  was  much  disturbed 
by  the  invasion  of  the  Saracens,  and  is  said  to  have  been  killed 
by  a  relative  who  coveted  the  papal  crown  and  treasure.  The 
best  thing  he  did  was  the  declaration,  in  the  Bulgarian  quarrel 
with  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  had 
created  other  languages  for  worship  besides  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin,  although  he  qualified  it  afterwards  by  saying  that  Greek 
and  Latin  were  the  only  proper  organs  for  the  celebration  of  the 
mass,  while  barbarian  tongues  such  as  the  Slavonic,  may  be  good 
enough  for  preaching. 

His  violent  end  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  interregnum  of 
violence.  The  close  of  the  ninth  century  gave  a  foretaste  of  the 
greater  troubles  of  the  tenth.  After  the  downfall  of  the  Carolin- 
gian dynasty  the  popes  were  more  and  more  involved  in  the  poli- 
tical quarrels  and  distractions  of  the  Italian  princes.  The  dukes 
Berengar  of  Friuli  (888-924),  and  Guido  of  Spoleto  (889-894), 
two  remote  descendants  of  Charlemagne  through  a  female  branch, 
<*>ntended  for  the  kingdom  of  Italy  and  the  imperial  crown,  and 
filled  alternately  the  papal  chair  according  to  their  success  in  tihe 
conflict.  The  Italians  liked  to  have  two  masters,  that  they 
might  play  off  one  against  the  other.  Guido  was  crowned  em- 
peror by  Stephen  VI.  (V.)  in  February,  891,  and  was  followed 
by  his  son,  Lambert,  in  894,  who  was  also  crowned.  Formosus, 
bishop  of  Portus,  whom  John  VIII.  had  pursued  with  bitter 
animosity,  was  after  varying  fortunes  raised  to  the  papal  chair, 
and  gave  the  imperial  crown  first  to  Lambert,  but  afterwards  to 
the  victorious  Arnulf  of  Carinthia,  in  896.  He  roused  the 
revenge  of  Lambert,  and  died  of  violence.  His  second  successor 
and  bitter  enemy,  Stephen  VTL  (VI.),  a  creature  of  the  party  of 


{  63.  DEGRADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY  IN  TENTH  CENTUBY.  279 

Lambert,  caused  his  corpse  to  be  exhumed,  clad  in  pontifical 
robes,  arraigned  in  a  mock  trial,  condemned  and  deposed, 
stripped  of  the  ornaments,  fearfully  mutilated,  decapitated,  and 
thrown  into  the  Tiber.  But  the  party  of  Berengar  again  ob- 
tained the  ascendency;  Stephen  VII.  was  thrown  into  prison 
and  strangled  (897).  This  was  regarded  as  a  just  punishment 
for  his  .conduct  towards  Formosus.  John  IX.  restored  the 
character  of  Formosus.  He  died  in  900,  and  was  followed  by 
Benedict  IV.,  of  the  Lambertine  or  Spoletan  party,  and  reigned 
for  the  now  unusual  term  of  three  years  and  a  half.1 

§  63.  The  Degradation  of  the  Papacy  in  the  Tenth  Century. 

SOURCES. 

MIGNE'S  Patrol.  Ldt~  Tom.  131-142.  These  vols.  contain  the  document* 
and  works  from  Pope  John  IX. — Gregory  VI. 

LiUJ>PBAijn>us  (Episcopus  Cremonensis,  d.  972) :  Anfapodoseos,  seu  Rerum 
per  Ewropam  gestarum  libri  VI.  From  A.  D.  887-950.  Eeprinted  in 
Pertz:  Monum.  Germ.  III.  269-272;  and  in  Migne:  Patrol  Tom. 
CXXXVI.  769  sqq.  By  the  same :  Eistoria  Ottonis,  sive  de  rebus 
gestis  Ottonis  Magni.  From  A.  D.  960-964.  In  Pertz:  Monum.  III. 
340-346 ;  in  Migne  CXXXVL  897  sqq.  Comp.  KCEPKE  :  De  Liud- 
prandi  mfa  et  scriptis,  Beroi,  1842;  WATTENBACH  :  Deutsehlands 
Gesehichtsquelkn,  and  GiESEBRECHT,  L  c.  I.  p.  779.  Liudprand  or 
Liutprand  (Liuzo  or  Liuso),  one  of  the  chief  authorities  on  the 
history  of  the  10th  century,  was  a  Lombard  hy  birth,  well  educated, 
travelled  in  the  East  and  in  Germany,  accompanied  Otho  I.  to  Eome, 
962,  was  appointed  by  him  bishop  of  Cremona,  served  as  his  inter- 
preter at  the  Eoman  Council  of  964,  and  was  again  in  Eome  965.  He 
was  also  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Constantinople.  He  describes  the 
wretched  condition  of  the  papacy  as  an  eye-witness.  His  Anto- 
podosis  or  Itefribution  (written  between  958  and  962)  is  specially 
directed  against  king  Berengar  and  queen  Willa,  whom  he  hated. 
TTia  work  on  OUio  treats  of  the  contemporary  events  in  which  he  waa 
one  of  the  actors.  He  was  fond  of  scandal,  but  is  considered  reliable 
in  most  of  his  facts. 

FLODOABDTTS  (Canonicus  Eemensis,  d.  966) :  Historia,  jRemerws;  An* 
nales;  Opwcida  me&rwa,  in  Migne,  Tom.  CXXXV. 

1  According  to  Auzentius  and  Yulgarius,  pope  Stephen  YH.  was  the  author 
of  the  outrage  on  the  corpse  of  Formosus;  Liutprand  traces  it  to  Sergius  III 
In  898,  when  he  was  anti-pope  of  John  IX.  Baronius  conjectures  that  Liut- 
prand wrote  Sergius  for  Stephanos.  Hefele  assents,  Gmcdwngesck.  IV.  561  sqq. 


280  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 


ATTO  (Episcopus  Vereellensis,  d.960)  : 

and  other  books,  in  Mignc,  Tom.  CXXXV. 
JAFFE  :  Regesfa,  pp.  307-325. 
Other  sources  relating  more  to  the  political  history  of  the  tenth  century 

are  indicated  by  Giesebrecht,  I.  817,  820,  836. 

LITERATURE. 

BARONIUS  :  Annales  ad  ann.  900-963. 

V.  E.  LOSCHER:  Historic  des  rbm.  Hurenregimente.    Leipzig,  1707.     (2nd 

ed.  with  another  title,  1725.) 
CO3TSTANTIN  HoFLER  (K.  C.)  :  Die  deutscken  Pdpste.    Eegensburg,  1839, 

2  vols. 
E*  DUMMLER  :  Auxilius  und  Vulgarius.   Quetten  undForschungenzur  Ge- 

schiehte  des  Papstthums  im  Anfang  des  zehnten  Jahrhuriderte.     Leipz. 

1866.  The  writings  of  Auxilius  and  Vulgarius  are  in  Migne's  Patrol., 

Tom.  CXXIX. 
C.  Jos.  VON  HEFELE  (Bishop  of  Rottenburg)  :  Die  Pdpste  und  Kaiser  in 

den  trubsten  Zeiten  der  Kirche,  in  his  "Beitrage  zur  Kirchengesch," 

etc.,    vol.  I.  227-278.     Also  his   Conciliengeschichte,  IV.  571-660 

(2d  ed.). 
MILMAN:  IM.  Chr.    Bk.  5,  chs.  11-14.    GIESEBRECHT:   Gesch.  der 

deutechen  Kaiserzeit.,  I.  343  sqq.     GFRORER:   III.  3,  1133-1275. 

BAXMAKCT  :  II.  58-125.    GREGOROVIUS,  Vol.  III.    VOK  EEUMONT, 

Vol.  II. 

The  tenth  century  is  the  darkest  of  the  dark  ages,  a  century 
of  ignorance  and  superstition,  anarchy  and  crime  in  church  and 
state.  The  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century  was  little  better. 
The  dissolution  of  the  world  seemed  to  be  nigh  at  hand.  Serious 
men  looked  forward  to  the  terrible  day  of  judgment  at  the  close 
of  the  first  millennium  of  the  Christian  era,  neglected  their 
secular  business,  and  inscribed  donations  of  estates  and  other 
gifts  to  the  church  with  the  significant  phrase  "  appropinquante 
muTidi  termino" 

The  demoralization  began  in  the  state,  reached  the  church,  and 
culminated  in  the  papacy.  The  reorganization  of  society  took 
the  same  course.  No  church  or  sect  in  Christendom  ever  sank 
so  low  as  the  Latin  church  in  the  tenth  century.  The  papacy, 
like  the  old  Roman  god  Janus,  has  two  faces,  one  Christian,  one 
'antichristian,  one  friendly  and  benevolent,  one  fiendish  and 
malignant.  In  this  period,  it  shows  almost  exclusively  the 


\  63.  DEGRADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY  IN  TENTH  CENTDEY.  281 

antickristian  face.  It  is  an  unpleasant  task  for  the  historian 
to  expose  these  shocking  corruptions ;  but  it  is  necessary  for  the 
understanding  of  the  reformation  that  followed.  The  truth  must 
be  told,  with  its  wholesome  lessons  of  humiliation  and  encour- 
agement. No  system  of  doctrine  or  government  can  save  the 
church  from  decline  and  decay.  Human  nature  is  capable  of 
satanic  wickedness.  Antichrist  steals  into  the  very  temple  of 
God,  and  often  wears  the  priestly  robes.  But  God  is  never 
absent  from  history,  and  His  overruling  wisdom  always  at  last 
brings  good  out  of  evil.  Even  in  this  midnight  darkness  the  stars 
were  shining  in  the  firmament;  and  even  then,  as  in  the  days  of 
Elijah  the  prophet,  there  were  thousands  who  had  not  bowed 
their  knees  to  Baal.  Some  convents  resisted  the  tide  of  corrup- 
tion, and  were  quiet  retreats  for  nobles  and  kings  disgusted  with 
the  vanities  of  the  world,  and  anxious  to  prepare  themselves  for 
the  day  of  account.  Nilus,  Eomuald,  and  the  monks  of  Cluny 
raised  their  mighty  voice  against  wickedness  in  high  places. 
Synods  likewise  deplored  the  immorality  of  the  clergy  and  laity, 
and  made  efforts  to  restore  discipline.  The  chaotic  confusion  of 
the  tenth  century,  like  the  migration  of  nations  in  the  fifth, 
proved  to  be  only  the  throe  and  anguish  of  a  new  birth.  It 
was  followed  first  by  the  restoration  of  the  empire  under  Otho 
the  Great,  and  then  by  the  reform  of  the  papacy  under  Hilde- 
brand. 

THE  POUTICAL  DISORDER. 

In  the  semi-barbarous  state  of  society  during  the  middle  ages, 
a  strong  central  power  was  needed  in  church  and  state  to  keep 

O  IT  ••• 

order.  Charlemagne  was  in  advance  of  his  times,  and  his 
structure  rested  on  no  solid  foundation.  His  successors  had 
neither  his  talents  nor  his  energy,  and  sank  almost  as  low  as  the 
Merovingians  in  incapacity  and  debauchery.  The  popular  con- 
tempt in  which  they  were  held  was  expressed  in  such  epithets  aa 
"the  Bald/'  "ihe  Fat/'  "the  Stammerer/'  "the  Simple,"  "the 
"the  Child."  Under  their  misrule  the  foundations  of 


282  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

law  and  discipline  gave  way.  Europe  was  threatened  with  a 
new  flood  of  heathen  barbarism.  The  Norman  pirates  from 
Denmark  and  Norway  infested  the  coasts  of  Germany  and 
France,  burned  cities  and  villages,  carried  off  captives,  followed 
in  their  light  boats  which  they  could  carry  on  their  shoulders, 
the  course  of  the  great  rivers  into  the  interior;  they  sacked 
Hamburg,  Cologne,  Treves,  Eouen,  and  stabled  their  horses  in 
Charlemagne's  cathedral  at  Aix;  they  invaded  England,  and 
were  the  terror  of  all  Europe  until  they  accepted  Christianity, 
settled  down  in  Normandy,  and  infused  fresh  blood  into  the 
French  and  English  people.  In  the  South,  the  Saracens,  cross- 
ing from  Africa,  took  possession  of  Sicily  and  Southern  Italy ; 
they  are  described  by  pope  John  VIII.  as  Hagarenes,  as 
children  of  fornication  and  wrath,  as  an  army  of  locusts,  turning 
the  land  into  a  wilderness.  From  the  East,  the  pagan  Hunga- 
rians or  Magyars  invaded  Germany  and  Italy  like  hordes  of 
wild  beasts,  but  they  were  defeated  at  last  by  Henry  the  Fowler 
and  Otho  the  Great,  and  after  their  conversion  to  Christianity 
under  their  saintly  monarch  Stepheu  (997-1068),  they  became  a 
wall  of  defence  against  the  progress  of  the  Turks. 

Within  the  limits  of  nominal  Christendom,  the  kings  and 
nobles  quarreled  among  themselves,  oppressed  the  people,  and 
distributed  bishoprics  and  abbeys  among  their  favorites,  or 
pocketed  the  income.  The  metropolitans  oppressed  the  bishops., 
the  bishops  the  priests,  and  the  priests  the  laity.  Bands  of 
robbers  roamed  over  the  country  and  defied  punishment.  Might 
was  right  Charles  the  Fat  was  deposed  by  his  vassals,  and  died 
in  misery,  begging  his  bread  (888).  His  successor,  Arnulf  of 
Carinthia,  the  last  of  the  Carolingian  line  of  emperors  (though 
of  illegitimate  birth),  wielded  a  victorious  sword  over  the  Nor- 
mans (891)  and  the  new  kingdom  of  Moravia  (894),  but  fell 
into  trouble,  died  of  Italian  poison,  and  left  the  crown  of  Ger- 
many to  his  only  legitimate  son,  Louis  the  Child  (899-911),  who 
was  ruled  by  Hatto,  archbishop  of  Mayence*  This  prelate 
figures  in  the  popular  legend  of  the  "Mouse-Tower"  (on  an 


g  63.  DEGBADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY  IN  TENTH  CENTURY.  283 

island  in  the  Rhine,  opposite  Bingen),  where  a  swarm  of  mice 
picked  his  bones  and  "gnawed  the  flesh  from  every  limb," 
because  he  had  shut  up  and  starved  to  death  a  number  of 
hungry  beggars.  But  documentary  history  shows  him  in  a 
more  favorable  light.  Louis  died  before  attaining  to  manhood, 
and  with  him  the  German  line  of  the  Carolingians  (911).  The 
last  shadow  of  an  emperor  in  Italy,  Berengar,  who  had  been 
crowned  in  St.  Peter's,  died  by  the  dagger  of  an  assassin  (924J. 
The  empire  remained  vacant  for  nearly  forty  years,  until  Otho, 
a  descendant  of  the  Saxon  duke  Widukind,  whom  Charlemagne 
had  conquered,  raised  it  to  a  new  life. 

In  France,  the  Carolingian  dynasty  lingered  nearly  a  century 
longer,  till  it  found  an  inglorious  end  in  a  fifth  Louis  called  the 
Lazy  ("le  Faineant"),  and  Count  Hugh  Capet  became  the 
founder  of  the  Capetian  dynasty,  based  on  the  principle  of 
hereditary  succession  (987).  He  and  his  son  Eobert  received 
the  crown  of  France  not  from  the  pope,  but  from  the  archbishop 
of  Rheims. 

Italy  was  invaded  by  Hungarians  and  Saracens,  and  distracted 
by  war  between  rival  kings  and  petty  princes  struggling  for 
aggrandizement.  The  bishops  and  nobles  were  alike  corrupt, 
and  the  whole  country  was  a  moral  wilderness.1 

THE  DEMORALIZATION  OF  THE  PAPACY. 

The  political  disorder  of  Europe  affected  the  church  and  para- 
lyzed its  efforts  for  good.  The  papacy  itself  lost  all  independ- 
ence and  dignity,  and  became  the  prey  of  avarice,  violence,  and 
intrigue,  a  veritable  synagogue  of  Satan.  It  was  dragged  through 
the  quagmire  of  the  darkest  crimes,  and  would  have  perished 
in  utter  disgrace  had  not  Providence  saved  it  for  better  times. 
Pope  followed  pope  in  rapid  succession,  and  most  of  them  ended 
their  career  in  deposition,  prison,  and  murder.  The  rich  and 

1  Hotter  (1. 16)  asserts  that  every  princely  family  of  Italy  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury was  tainted  with  incestuous  blood,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish 
wives  and  sisters,  mothers  and  daughters.  See  his  genealogical  tables  appended 
to  the  first  volume. 


284  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D-  590  TO  1049. 

powerful  marquises  of  Tuscany  and  the  Counts  of  Tusculum 
acquired  control  over  the  city  of  Home  and  the  papacy  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  And  what  is  worse  (ineredibile,  at- 
iamm  verum),  three  bold  and  energetic  women  of  the  highest 
rank  and  lowest  character,  Theodora  the  elder  (the  wife  or  wido\v 
of  a  Roman  senator),  and  her  two  daughters,  Marozia  and  Theo- 
dora, filled  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  with  their  paramours  and  bas- 
tards. These  Roman  Amazons  combined  with  the  fatal  charms 
of  personal  beauty  and  wealth,  a  rare  capacity  for  intrigue,  and 
a  burning  lust  for  power  and  pleasure.  They  had  the  diabolical 
ambition  to  surpass  their  sex  as  much  in  boldness  and  badness  as 
St.  Paula  and  St.  Eustachium  in  the  days  of  Jerome  had  excelled 
in  virtue  and  saintliness.  They  turned  the  church  of  St.  Peter 
into  a  den  of  robbers,  and  the  residence  of  his  successors  into  a 
harem.  And  they  gloried  in  their  shame.  Hence  this  infamous 
period  is  called  the  papal  Pornocracy  or  Hetserocracy.1 

1  Llutprandi  Antapodosis,  IL  48  (Pertz,  V.  297;  Migne,  CXXXVL  827)  : 
"Theodora,  scartum  impudens . . .  (quod  dtctu  ettamfosdissimum  est),  Romance  civi- 
tatis  non  invirillter  monarchiam  obtinebat.  Qua  duos  habuti  nafas,  Marotiam  atque 
Theodvram,  sibi  non  solum  cocequdes,  verum  etiam  Veneris  exercitio  promptiores. 
Ifaarim  Mcarotia  ex  Papa  Sergio^Joannem,  qui  post  Joannis  Jfavcnnatis  obttum 
BcrmasMR  Ec&lesios  obtinuti  dignitatem,  nefaria  genuti  adulterio"  etc.  In  the  same 
ch.  he  calls  the  elder  Theodora  "merefriv  satis  impudentissima,  Veneris  adore 
swxensaS* 

This  Theodora  was  the  wife  of  Theophylaetus,  Boman  Consul  and  Senator, 
probably  of  Byzantine  origin,  who  appears  in  901  among  the  Koman  judges  of 
Louis  HI.  She  called  herself  "  Senatrix."  She  was  the  mistress  of  Adalbert 
of  Tuscany,  called  the  Kich  (d.  926),  and  of  pope  John  X.  (d.  928).  And 
yet  she  is  addressed  by  Eugenius  Vulgarius  as  "  sanctissima,  et  venerabttis  matrona  P 
(See  Dummler,  I  c.  p.  146,  and  Hefele,  IV.  575.)  Her  daughter  Marozia  (or 
Maractia,  the  diminutive  of  Maria,  Mcuriechen)  was  the  boldest  and  most  sac* 
cessful  of  the  three.  She  was  the  mistress  of  pope  Sergius  HI.  and  of  Alberic  I., 
Count  of  Tosculi  jn  (d.  926),  and  married  several  times.  Comp.  Liutprand, 
lH.  43  and  44.  She  perpetuated  her  rule  through  her  son,  Alberic  II.,  and 
her  grandson,  pope  John  XIL  With  all  their  talents  and  influence,  these 
strong-minded  women  were  very  ignorant;  the  daughters  of  the  younger  Theo- 
dora could  neither  read  nor  write,  and  signed  their  name  in  945  with  a  +. 
(Gregorovius,  JIL  282  sq.)  The  Tuscolan  popes  and  the  Grescentii,  who  con- 
troned  and  disgraced  the  papacy  in  the  eleventh  century,  were  descendants  of 
the  same  stock. 

The  main  ftcts  of  this  shameful  reign  rest  on  good  contemporary  Catholic 


g  63.  DEGEADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY  IN  TENTH  CENTUBY.  285 

Some  popes  of  this  period  were  almost  as  bad  as  the  worst 
emperors  of  heathen  Rome,  and  far  less  excusable. 

Sergius  HI.,  the  lover  of  Marozia  (904-911),  opened  the 
shameful  succession.  Under  the  protection  of  a  force  of  Tuscan 
soldiers  he  appeared  in  Rome,  deposed  Christopher  who  had  just 
deposed  Leo  V.,  took  possession  of  the  papal  throne,  and  soiled 
it  with  eveiy  vice;  but  he  deserves  credit  for  restoring  the 
venerable  church  of  the  Lateran,  which  had  been  destroyed  by 
an  earthquake  in  896  and  robbed  of  invaluable  treasures.1 

After  the  short  reign  of  two  other  popes,  John  X.,  archbishop 
of  Ravenna,  was  elected,  contrary  to  all  canons,  in  obedience  to 
the  will  of  Theodora,  for  the  more  convenient  gratification  of 
her  passion  (914-928).2  He  was  a  m^n  of  military  ability 
and  daring,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army — the  first 
warrior  among  the  popes — and  defeated  the  Saracens.  He 
announced  the  victory  in  the  tone  of  a  general.  He  then  en- 

authorities  (as  Liutprand,  Fiodoard,  Batherius  of  Verona,  Benedict  of  Soracte, 
Gerbert,  the  transactions  of  the  Councils  in  Borne,  Bheims,  etc.),  and  are  frankly 
admitted  with  devout  indignation  by  Baronius  and  other  Boman  Catholic 
historians,  but  turned  by  them  into  an  argument  for  the  divine  origin  of  the 
papacy,  whose  restoration  to  power  appears  all  the  more  wonderful  from  the 
depth  of  its  degradation.  Mohler  (Ifodungesch.  ed.  by  Gams,  IL  183)  calls 
Sergius  DDL,  John  X.,  John  XI.,  and  John  XII.  "horrible  popes,"  and  says 
that  "crimes  alone  secured  the  papal  dignity."  Others  acquit  the  papacy  of 
guilt,  since  it  was  not  independent.  The  best  lesson  which  Eomanists  might 
derive  from  this  period  of  prostitution  is  humility  and  charity.  It  is  a  terrible 


1  Baronius,  following  Liutprand,  calls  Sergius  "Jumo  vitiorwn  omnium  servus*" 
But  Fiodoard  and  the  inscriptions  give  him  a  somewhat  better  character. 
See  Hefele  IV.  576,  Gregorovius  HI.  269,  and  von  Beumont  IL  273. 

*  Gfrorer  makes  him  the  paramour  of  the  younger  Theodora,  which  on 
chronological  grounds  is  more  probable;  but  Hefele,  Gregorovjus,  von  Beu- 
mont, and  Greenwood  link  him  with  the  elder  Theodora.  This  seems  to  be 
the  meaning  of  Liutprand  (II.  47  and  48),  who  says  that  she  fell  in  love  with 
John  for  his  great  beauty,  and  actually  forced  him  to  sin  (secwmque  Avne  «cor- 
tarinon  solum  wluit,  verum  etiam  atque  efom  compuKt).  She  could  not  stand 
the  separation  from  her  lover,  and  called  him  to  Borne.  Baronius  treats  John 
X.  as  bpseudopapcL  Muratori,  Dnret,  and  Hefele  dissent  from  Liutprand  and 
give  John  a  somewhat  better  character,  without^  however,  denying  bis  relation 
to  Theodora.  See  Hefele,  IV.  579  sq. 


286  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1019. 

eag-ed  in  a  fierce  contest  for  power  with  Marozia  and  her  lover 

O    iD  •*• 

or  husband,  the  Marquis  Alberic  I.  Unwilling  to  yield  any  of 
her  secular  power  over  Bome,  Marozia  seized  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  had  John  cast  into  prison  and  smothered  to  death,  and 
raised  three  of  her  creatures,  Leo  VI.,  Stephen  VII.  (VIII.), 
and  at  last  John  XL,  her  own  (bastard)  son  of  only  twenty-one 
years,  successively  to  the  papal  chair  (928-936).1 

After  the  murder  of  Alberic  I.  (about  926),  Marozia,  who 
called  herself  Senatrix  and  Patricia,  offered  her  hand  and  as 
much  of  her  love  as  she  could  spare  from  her  numerous  para- 
mours, to  Guido,  Markgrave  of  Tuscany,  who  eagerly  accepted 
the  prize;  and  after  his  death  she  married  king  Hugo  of  Italy, 
the  step-brother  of  her  late  husband  (932);  he  hoped  to  gain 
the  imperial  crown,  but  he  was  soon  expelled  from  Borne  by  a 
rebellion  excited  by  her  own  son  Alberic  II.,  who  took  offence  at 
his  overbearing  conduct  for  slapping  him  in  the  face.2  She  now 
disappears  from  the  stage,  and  probably  died  in  a  convent.  Her 
son,  the  second  Alberic,  was  raised  by  the  Eomans  to  the  dig- 
nity of  Consul,  and  ruled  Borne  and  the  papacy  from  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo  for  twenty-two  years  with  great  ability  as  a  despot 
under  the  -forms  of  a  republic  (932-954).  After  the  death  of 
his  brother,  John  XI.  (936),  he  appointed  four  insignificant 
pontifls,  and  restricted  them  to  the  performance  of  their  religious 
duties. 


1  Liutprand,  Antapodosts  HT.  43  (Mlgne,  I  c^  852)  :  "Papam  [John  X.] 
todmmamdpar^n^inquanonmulto  post  est  defunctus;  aiuntcmm  quod  cervical 
wper  08  eius  imponerentj  siapie  ew^  Quo  mortuo  ipsius  Maro- 

fMBjH&0tt  Jb&onnemiumune  [John  XL]  quean  ex  Sergio  papa  meretrix  genucrat, 
papam  const/town*."  The  parentage  of  John  XI.  from  pope  Seigius  is  adopted 
by  Gtt^rovlus,  Duxnmler,  Greenwood,  and  Baxmann,  but  disputed  by  Mura- 
ton,  Hefele,  and  Gfrorer,  who  nMtinfrMn  that  John  XI.  was  the  son  of  Marozia's 
husband,  Alberic  L,  if  they  ever  were  married.  For,  according  to  Benedict  of 
Soracte,  Marozia  accepted  him  " 


Albericus  Marchio  was  an  adventurer  before  he  became  Markgrave,  about  897, 
and  must  not  be  confounded  with  Albertus  Maxchio  or  Adalbert  the  Bich  of 
Tuscany.    See  Gregorovins,  EX  275;  von  Beumont,  II.  228,  231,  and  the 
genealogical  tables  in  Hofler,  Vol.  L,  Append.  V.  and  VL 
2  See  the  account  in  Liutprand  HL  44. 


I  63.  DEGRADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY  IN  TENTH  CENTURY.  287 


JOHN  XII. 

On  the  death  of  Alberic  in  954,  his  son  Octavian,  the  grand- 
son of  Marozia,  inherited  the  secular  government  of  Rome,  and 
was  elected  pope  when  only  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  thus 
united  a  double  supremacy.  He  retained  his  name  Octavian  as 
civil  ruler,  but  assumed,  as  pope,  the  name  John  XIL,  either  by 
compulsion  of  the  clergy  and  people,  or  because  he  wished  to  secure 
more  license  by  keeping  the  two  dignities  distinct.  This  is  the 
first  example  of  such  a  change  of  name,  and  it  was  followed  by 
his  successors.  He  completely  sunk  his  spiritual  in  his  secular 
character,  appeared  in  military  dress,  and  neglected  the  duties  of 
the  papal  office,  though  he  surrendered  none  of  its  claims* 

John  XIL  disgraced  the  tiara  for  eight  years  (955-963).  He 
was  one  of  the  most  immoral  and  wicked  popes,  ranking  with 
Benedict  IX.,  John  XXHL,  and  Alexander  VL  He  was 
charged  by  a  Roman  Synod,  no  one  contradicting,  with  almost 
every  crime  of  which  depraved  human  nature  is  capable,  and 
deposed  as  a  monster  of  iniquity.1 

1  Among  the  charges  of  the  Synod  against  him  were  that  he  appeared  con- 
stantly armed  with  sword,  lance,  helmet,  and  breastplate,  that  he  neglected 
matins  and  vespers,  that  he  never  signed  himself  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  that 
he  was  fond  of  hunting,  that  he  had  made  a  boy  of  ten  years  a  bishop,  and  or- 
dained a  bishop  or  deacon  in  a  stable,  that  he  had  mutilated  a  priest,  that  he  had 
set  houses  on  fire,  like  Nero,  that  he  had  committed  homicide  and  adultery,  had 
violated  virgins  and  widows  high  and  low,  lived  with  his  father's  mistress,  con- 
verted the  pontifical  palace  into  a  brothel,  drank  to  the  health  of  the  devil,  and 
invoked  at  the  gambling-table  the  help  of  Jupiter  and  Venus  and  other  heathen 
demons!  The  emperor  Otho  would  not  believe  these  enormities  until  they 
were  proven,  but  the  bishops  replied,  that  they  were  matters  of  public  notoriety 
requiring  no  proof.  Before  the  Synod  convened  John  XII.  had  made  his 
escape  from  Borne,  carrying  with  him  the  portable  part  of  the  treasury  of  St 
Peter.  But  after  the  departure  of  the  emperor  he  was  readmitted  to  the  city, 
restored  for  a  short  time,  and  killed  in  an  act  of  adultery  (a dim se cum vari 
cujusdam  uxore  oblectaret")  by  the  enraged  husband  of  his  paramour,  or  by  the 
devil  ("a  diabob  est  jwrctaw").  Liutprand,  De  rebus  g&ti*  Ottoms  (in  Migne, 
Tom.  XXXVI-  898-910).  Hefele  (IV.  619)  thinks  that  he  died  of  apoplexy. 


288  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

§  64  The  Irderferenee  of  (Mo  the  Great. 

Comp.,  besides  tlie  works  quoted  in  \  63,  FLOSS  :  Die  Papstwahl  unter  den 
Qttonen.  Freiburg,  1858,  and  KOPKE  and  DUMMLEB;  Otto  der 
Gro&e.  Leipzig,  1876. 

From  this  state  of  infamy  the  papacy  was  rescued  for  a  brief 
time  by  the  interference  of  Otho  L,  justly  called  the  Great  (936- 
973).  He  had  subdued  the  Danes,  the  Slavonians,  and  the 
Hungarians,  converted  the  barbarians  on  the  frontier,  estab- 
lished order  and  restored  the  Carolingian  empire.  He  was 
called  by  the  pope  himself  and  several  Italian  princes  for  pro- 
tection against  the  oppression  of  king  Berengar  H.  (or  the 
Younger,  who  was  crowned  in  950,  and  died  in  exile,  966). 
He  crossed  the  Alps,  and  was  anointed  Roman  emperor  by  John 
XII.  in  962.  He  promised  to  return  to  the  holy  see  all  the 
lost  territories  granted  by  Pepin  and  Charlemagne,  and  received 
in  turn  from  the  pope  and  the  Romans  the  oath  of  allegiance 
on  the  sepulchre  of  St.  Peter. 

Hereafter  the  imperial  crown  of  Borne  was  always  held  by  the 
Ctearman  nation,  but  the  legal  assumption  of  tibe  titles  of  Emperor 
and  Augustus  depended  on  the  act  of  coronation  by  the  pope. 

After  the  departure  of  Otho  the  perfidious  pope,  unwilling  to 
obey  aOTperior  master,  rebelled  and  entered  into  conspiracy  with 
his  enemies.  The  emperor  returned  to  Borne,  convened  a  Synod 
of  Italian  and  German  bishops,  which  indignantly  deposed  John 
XII.  in  his  absence,  on  the  ground  of  most  notorious  crimes,  yet 
without  a  regular  trial  (963).1 

The  emperor  and  the  Synod  elected  a  respectable  layman,  the 
chief  secretary  of  the  Roman  see,  in  his  place.  He  was  hur- 
riedly promoted  through  the  orders  of  reader,  suodeacon,  deacon, 

*A  iyiaceouit  of  fftis  Synod  seem  Ottonw,  and  in 

Baronius,  AnnaL  ad  amn  963.  Comp.  also  Greenwood,  Bk  Yin.  ch.  12,  Gfrorer, 
vol.  III.,  P.  Si.,  1249  eqq.,  Giesehrecht,  L  465  and  828,  and  Hefele,  IY.  612 
sqq.  Gfrorer,  without  defending  John  XIL,  charges  Otho  with  having  first 
violated  the  engagement  (p.  1253).  The  pope  was  three  times  summoned  be* 
fore  the  Synod,  bnt  the  answer  came  from  Tivoli  that  he  had  gone  hunting. 
Baxonins,  Floss,  and  Hefele  regard  this  synod  as  uncanonicaL 


5  64.    THE  INTERFERENCE  OF  OTHO  THE  GREAT.    289 

priest  and  bishop,  and  consecrated  as  Leo  YHL,  but  not  recog- 
nized by  the  strictly  hierarchical  party,  because  he  surrendered 
the  freedom  of  the  papacy  to  the  empire.  The  Romans  swore 
that  they  would  never  elect  a  pope  again  without  the  emperor's 
consent.  Leo  confirmed  this  in  a  formal  document.1 

The  anti-imperial  party  readmitted  John  XIL,  who  took 
cruel  revenge  of  his  enemies,  but  was  suddenly  struck  down  in 
his  sins  by  a  violent  death.  Then  they  elected  an  anti-pope, 
Benedict  V.,  bat  he  himself  begged  pardon  for  his  usurpation 
when  the  emperor  reappeared,  was  divested  of  the  papal  robes, 
degraded  to  the  order  of  deacon,  and  banished  to  Germany. 
Leo  VIII.  died  in  April,  965,  after  a  short  pontificate  of  six- 
teen months. 

The  bishop  of  Narni  was  unanimously  elected  his  successor 
as  John  XIII.  (965-972)  by  the  Roman  clergy  and  people, 
after  first  consulting  the  will  of  the  emperor.  He  crowned  Otho 
II.  emperor  of  the  Romans  (973-983).  He  was  expelled  by  the 
Romans,  but  reinstated  by  Otho,  who  punished  the  rebellious 
city  with  terrible  severity. 

Thus  the  papacy  was  morally  saved,  but  at  the  expense  of  its 
independence;  or  rather  it  had  exchanged  its  domestic  bondage 
for  a  foreign  bondage.  Otho  restored  to  it  its  former  dominions 
which  it  had  lost  during  the  Italian  disturbances,  but  he  re- 
garded the  pope  and  the  Romans  as  his  subjects,  who  owed  him 
the  same  temporal  allegiance  as  the  Germans  and  Lombards. 

It  would  have  been  far  better  for  Germany  and  Italy  if  they 
had  never  meddled  with  each  other.  The  Italians,  especially  the 
Romans,  feared  the  German  army,  but  hated  the  Germans  as 
Northern  semi-barbarians,  and  shook  off  their  yoke  as  soon  as 
they  had  a  chance.5  The  Germans  suspected  the  Italians  for 

1  Baronius,  ad  ann.  964,  pronounced  the  document  spurious,  chiefly  because 
it  is  very  inconvenient  to  his  ultramontane  doctrine.  It  is  printed  in  Mon* 
Germ,  iv.  2  (Leges,  IL 167),  and  in  a  more  extensive  form  from  a  MS.  at  Treves 
in  Leonis  VHI.  primlegium  de  investitwris,  by  H.  J.  Floss,  Freib.,  1858.  This 
publication  has  changed  the  state  of  the  controversy  in  favor  of  a  genuine  ele- 
ment in  the  document.  See  the  discussion  in  Hefele,  IV.  622  sqq. 

1  This  antipathy  found  its  last  expression  and  termination  in  the  expulsion  of 


290  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

dishonesty  and  trickery,  were  always  in  danger  of  fever  and 
poison,  and  lost  armies  and  millions  of  treasure  without  any  re- 
turn of  profit  or  even  military  glory.1  The  two  nations  were 
always  jealous  of  each  other,  and  have  only  recently  become 
friends,  on  the  basis  of  mutual  independence  and  non-inter- 
ference. 

PROTEST  AGAINST  PAPAL  CORRUPTION. 

The  shocking  immoralities  of  the  popes  called  forth  strong 
protests,  though  they  did  not  shake  the  faith  in  the  institution 
itself.  A  Gallican  Synod  deposed  archbishop  Arnulf  of  Bheims 
as  a  traitor  to  king  Hugo  Capet,  without  waiting  for  an  answer 
from  the  pope,  and  without  caring  for  the  Pseudo-Isidorian 
Decretals  (991).  The  leading  spirit  of  the  Synod,  Arnulf, 
bishop  of  Orleans,  made  the  following  bold  declaration  against 
the  prostitution  of  the  papal  office :  "Looking  at  the  actual  state 
of  the  papacy,  what  do  we  behold  ?  John  [XII.]  called  Octa- 
vian,  wallowing  in  the  sty  of  filthy  concupiscence,  conspiring 
against  the  sovereign  whom  he  had  himself  recently  crowned ; 
then  Leo  £VHL]  the  neophyte,  chased  from  the  city  by  this 
Octavian;  and  that  monster  himself,  after  the  commission  of 
many  murders  and  cruelties,  dying  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin. 
Next  we  see  the  deacon  Benedict,  though  freely  elected  by  the 
Eomans,  carried  away  captive  into  the  wilds  of  Germany  by  the 
new  Caesar  [Otho  I.]  and  his  pope  Leo.  Then  a  second  Caesar 
[Otho  II.],  greater  in  arts  and  arms  than  the  first  [?],  succeeds ; 
and  in  his  absence  Boniface,  a  very  monster  of  iniquity,  reeking 
with  the  blood  of  his  predecessor,  mounts  the  iihrone  of  Peter. 
True,  he  is  expelled  and  condemned ;  but  only  to  return  again, 

the  Arabians  from  Lombardy  and  Venice,  and  the  formation  of  a  united  king- 
dom of  Italy. 

1  Ditmar  of  Merseburg,  the  historian  of  Henry  II.,  expresses  the  sentiment 
of  that  time  when  he  says  (Chr&n.  IV.  22) :  "Neither  the  climate  nor  the  people 
suit  our  countrymen.  Both  in  Borne  and  Lombardy  treason  is  always  at  work. 
Strangers  who  visit  Italy  expert  no  hospitality :  everything  they  require  must 
be  instantly  paid  for;  and  even  then  they  must  submit  to  he  over-reached  and 
cheated,  and  not  unfrequently  to  he  poisoned  after  alL" 


2  64.  THE  INTERFEEENCE  OF  OTHO  THE  GBEAT.      291 

and  redden  his  hands  with  the  blood  of  the  holy  bishop  John 
[XIV.].  Are  there,  indeed,  any  bold  enough  to  mmnfeiin  that 
the  priests  of  the  Lord  over  all  the  world  are  to  take  their  law 
from  monsters  of  guilt  like  these — men  branded  with  ignominy, 
illiterate  men,  and  ignorant  alike  of  things  human  and  divine? 
If,  holy  fathers,  we  be  bound  to  weigh  in  the  balance  the  lives, 
the  morals,  and  the  attainments  of  the  meanest  candidate  for  the 
sacerdotal  office,  how  much  more  ought  we  to  look  to  the  fitness 
of  him  who-aspires  to  be  the  lord  and  master  of  all  priests !  Yet 
how  would  it  fare  with  us,  if  it  should  happen  that  the  man 
the  most  deficient  in  all  these  virtues,  one  so  abject  as  not  to  be 
worthy  of  the  lowest  place  among  the  priesthood,  should  be 
chosen  to  fill  the  highest  place  of  all  ?  What  would  you  say  of 
such  a  one,  when  you  behold  him  sitting  upon  the  throne  glit- 
tering in  purple  and  gold  ?  Must  he  not  be  the  'Antichrist,  sit- 
ting  in  the  temple  of  God,  and  showing  himself  as  GrodJ  ?  Verily 
such  a  one  lacketh  both  wisdom  and  charity;  he  staudeth  in  the 
temple  as  an  image,  as  an  idol,  from  which  as  from  dead  marble 
you  would  seek  counsel.1 

"  But  the  Church  of  God  is  not  subject  to  a  wicked  pope  ;  nor 
even  absolutely,  and  on  all  occasions,  to  a  good  one.  Let  us 
rather  in  our  difficulties  resort  to  our  brethren  of  Belgium  and 
Germany  than  to  that  city,  where  all  things  are  venal,  where 
judgment  and  justice  are  bartered  for  gold.  Let  us  imitate  the 
great  church  of  Africa,  which,  in  reply  to  the  pretensions  of  the 
Roman  pontiff,  deemed  it  inconceivable  that  the  Lord  should 
have  invested  any  one  person  with  his  own  plenary  prerogative 
of  judicature,  and  yet  have  denied  it  to  the  great  congregations 
of  his  priests  assembled  in  council  in  different  parts  of  the  world. 
If  it  be  true,  as  we  are  informed  by  common'report,  that  there  is 

1 "  Quid  hunc,  rev.  Patres,  in  sublimi  soKo  residentem  veste  purpwrea  et  aurea  ra- 
diantem,  quid  hunc,  inqwm,  esse  censetisf  Nimirum  si  carttate  destituitw,  sdaque 
sa^iairijlalMretextoUitur,  Antichrisfas  est,  m  temph  Dei  sedens,et  se  osttnden* 
tcmquam  sit  Deus.  Si  autem  nee  (witcfc  fonfafar,  nee  seientia  erigitur,  in  temph 
Dei  tcmquam  staiuctj  tanquam,  idohwi  est,  a  quo  responses  peter e,  mormon*  considers 
est." 


292  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590  TO  1049. 

ia  Rome  scarcely  a  man  acquainted  with  letters, — without  which, 
as  it  is  written,  one  may  scarcely  be  a  doorkeeper  in  the  house  of 
God, — with  what  face  may  he  who  hath  himself  learnt  nothing 
set  himself  up  for  a  teacher  of  others  ?    In  the  simple  priest 
ignorance  is  bad  enough;  but  in  the  high  priest  of  Kome, — in 
him  to  whom  it  is  given  to  pass  in  review  the  faith,  the  lives, 
the  morals,  the  discipline,  of  the  whole  body  of  the  priesthood, 
yea,  of  the  universal  church,  ignorance  is  in  nowise  to  be 
tolerated.  .  .  .  Why  should  he  not  be  subject  in  judgment  to 
those  who,  though  lowest  in  place,  are  his  superiors  in  virtue 
and  in  wisdom?    Yea,  not  even  he,  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
declined  the  rebuke  of  Paul,  though  his  inferior  in  place,  and, 
saith  lie  great  pope  Gregory  [I.], '  if  a  bishop  be  in  fault,  I  know 
not  any  one  such  who  is  not  subject  to  the  holy  see;  but  if 
faultless,  let  every  one  understand  that  he  is  the  equal  of  the 
Eoman  pontiff  himself,  and  as  well  qualified  as  he  to  give  judg- 
ment in  any  matter/ ;n 

The  secretary  of  this  council  and  the  probable  framer  of  this 
remarkable  speech  was  Gerbert,  who  became  archbishop  of 
Eheims,  afterwards  of  Ravenna,  and  at  last  pope  under  the 
name  of  Sylvester  II.  But  pope  John  XV.  (or  his  master 
Crescentius)  declared  the  proceedings  of  this  council  null  and 
void,  and  interdicted  Gerbert.  His  successor,  Gregory  V., 
threatened  the  kingdom  of  France  with  a  general  interdict  un- 
less Arnulf  was  restored.  Gerbert,  forsaken  by  king  Eobert  L, 
who  needed  the  favor  of  the  pope,  was  glad  to  escape  from  his 
uncomfortable  seat  and  to  accept  an  invitation  of  (Who  HL  to 
become  his  teacher  (995).  Arnulf  was  reinstated  in  Bheims. 

1  The  acts  of  this  Synod  were  first  published  in  the  Magdeburg  Centuries, 
then  byMansi,  Owe.  XIX.  107,  and  Perte,  Mm.  V.  658.  Baronius  pronounced 
themspurious,  and  interspersed  them  wfth  indignant  notes ;  but  Mansi  (p.  107) 
says:  " Gsn^ mdgo  (mnes,  Q&bc^ 

AaBfo*  See  Gieseler,  Greenwood  (Book  YD!ch.  6),  and  Helele  (IV*  637  sqq.). 
Hefele  pronounces  the  speech  ^h 


65.  THE  SECOND  DEGEABATION  OF  THE  PAPACY.  293 


§  65.  The  Second  Degradation  of  the  Papacy  from  Oiho  L  to 
Henry  III.    A.  D.  973-1046. 

L  The  sources  for  the  papacy  in  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  and  in  the 
eleventh  century  are  collected  in  Muratori's  Annali  d9  Italia  (Milano 
1744-49) ;  in  Migne's  Patrol.,  Tom.  CXXXVIL-CL. ;  Leibnitz,  An- 
nales  Imp.  Occid.  (down  to  A.D  1005;  Han.,  1843,  3  vols.) ;  Pertz, 
Man.  Germ.  (Auctores),  Tom.  V.  (Leges),  Tom.  II. ;  Kanke,  Jakr- 
bucher  des  deutsehen  Seiches  unter  dem  Sachs.  Home  (Berlin  1837-40, 
3  vols. ;  the  second  vol.  by  Giesebrecht  and  Wilmans  contains  the 
reigns  of  Otho  II.  and  Oiho  III.).  On  the  sources  see  Giesebreeht, 
Gesoh.  der  deutsehen  Kaiserzeit,  IL  568  sqq. 

IE.  STENZEL:  Geachichte  Deutsehlands  unter  den  IranMsehen  Kaisem. 
Leipz.,  1827, 1828,  2  vols. 

0.  F.  HOCK  (E.  C.) :  Gerbert  oder  Papst  Sylvester  und  sein  Jahrhundert. 
Wien,  1837. 

C.  HOFLEB  (R.  C.) :  Die  deutsehen  Papste.    Eegensb.,  1839,  2  vols. 

H.  J.  FLOSS  (E.  C.) :  Die  Papstwahl  unter  den  Ottonen.    Freib.,  1858. 

C.  WILL  :  Die  Anfange  der  fiestauration  der  Kirche  im  elften  Jahrh.  Mar- 
burg, 1859-'62,  2  vols. 

E.  K6PKE  und  E.  DUMMLEB:  Otto  der  Grosse.    Leipz.  1876. 

Comp.  BABONITJS  (Annal.)  ;  JAFF^"  (Reg.  325-364) ;  HEFELE  (Cbndlien- 
geschichte  IV.  632  sqq.,  2d  ed.) ;  GFR5REB  (vol.  III.,  P.  III.,  1358- 
1590,  and  vol.  IV.,  1846) ;  GREGOROVHTS  (vols.  III.  and  IV.);  v. 
EEUMONT  (II.  292  sqq.) ;  BAXMAJSOST  (II.  125-180) ;  and  GIESE- 
BRECHT (I.  569-762,  and  II.  1-431). 

The  reform  of  the  papacy  was  merely  temporary.  It  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  second  period  of  disgrace,  which  lasted  till  the  middle 
of  the  eleventh  century,  but  was  interrupted  by  a  few  respectable 
popes  and  signs  of  a  coming  reformation. 

After  the  death  of  Otho,  during  the  short  and  unfortunate 
reign  of  his  son,  Otho  II.  (973-983),  a  faction  of  the  Roman 
nobility  under  the  lead  of  Orescentius  or  Cencins  (probably  a 
son  of  pope  John  X.  and  Theodora)  gained  the  upper  hand.1 
He  rebelled  against  the  imperial  pope,  Benedict  VI.,  who  was 

1  He  is  called  Crescentius  de  Theodora,  and  seems  to  have  died  in  a  convent 
about  984  Some  make  him  the  son  of  Pope  John  X.  and  the  elder  Theodora, 
oHiera,  of  the  younger  Theodora.  See  Grsgowmus,  HJ.  407  sqq  ;  yon  Eeo- 
mont,  II.  292  sqq.;  and  the  genealogy  of  the  Crescentii  in  Hofler,  L  300. 


294  FOUBTH  PERIOD.   A.  D.  590-1049. 

murdered  (974),  and  elected  an  Italian  anti-pope,  Boniface 
VII.,  who  had  soon  to  flee  to  Constantinople,  but  returned 
after  some  years,  murdered  another  imperial  pope,  John  XIV. 
(983),  and  maintained  himself  on  the  blood-stained  throne  by  a 
lavish  distribution  of  stolen  money  till  he  died,  probably  by 
violence  (985).1 

During  the  minority  of  Otho  HL,  the  imperialists,  headed  by 
Alberic,  Count  of  Tusculum,  and  the  popular  Roman  party 
under  the  lead  of  the  younger  Crescentius  (perhaps  a  grandson 
of  the  infamous  Theodora),  contended  from  their  fortified  places 
for  the  mastery  of  Rome  and  the  papacy.  Bloodshed  was  a 
daily  amusement.  Issuing  from  their  forts,  the  two  parties  gave 
battle  to  each  other  whenever  they  met  on  the  street.  They  set 
up  rival  popes,  and  mutilated  their  corpses  with  insane  fury. 
The  contending  parties  were  related.  Marozia's  son,  Alberic, 
had  probably  inherited  Tusculum  (which  is  about  fifteen  miles 
from  Rome).2  After  the  death  of  Alberic  of  Tusculum,  Crescen- 
tius acquired  the  government  under  the  title  of  Consul,  and  in- 
dulged the  Romans  with  a  short  dream  of  republican  freedom  in 
opposition  to  the  hated  rule  of  the  foreign  barbarians.  He  con* 
trolled  pope  John  XV* 

GREGORY  V. 

Otho  III.,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  elected  his  worthy  chaplain 
and  cousin  Bruno,  who  was  consecrated  as  Gregory  V.  (996)  and 
then  anointed  Otho  III.  emperor.  He  is  the  first  pope  of  Ger- 
man blood.3  Crescentius  was  treated  with  great  leniency,  but 
after  the  departure  of  the  German  army  he  stirred  up  a  rebellion, 

1  Gerbert  (afterwards  pope  Sylvester  II.)  called  this  Bonifacius  a  "Malefactor" 
(Malifaeius  }  and  "  horrendum  monstrwn,  cuwtos  mortdes  nequitia  superaw,  etiam 
prioris  pontificis  sanguine  Gruentus"    Gr^gorovius,  III-  410. 

2  The  Tusculan  family  claimed  descent  from  Julius  Caesar  and  Octavian. 
See  Gregorovius,  IV*  10,  and  Giesebrecht  II.  174;  also  the  genealogical  table 
of  HSfler  at  the  dose  of  Vol.  I. 

*  Baronius,  however,  says  that  Stephen  VIII.  (989-942)  was  a  German,  and 
for  this  reason  opposed  by  the  Romans.  Bruno  was  only  twenty-four  years  old 
when  elected.  Hofler  (L  94  sqq.)  gives  him  a  very  high  character. 


I  65.  THE  SECOND  DEGRADATION  OF  THE  PAPACY.  295 

expelled  the  German  pope  and  elevated  Philagathus,  a  Calabrian 
Greek,  under  the  name  of  John  XVI.  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 
Gregory  V.  convened  a  large  synod  at  Pavia,  which  unanimously 
pronounced  the  anathema  against  Crescentius  and  his  pope. 
The  emperor  hastened  to  Rome  with  an  army,  stormed  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo  (the  mole  of  Hadrian),  and  beheaded  Crescentius 
as  a  traitor,  while  John  XVI.  by  order  of  Gregory  V.  was, 
according  to  the  savage  practice  of  that  age,  fearfully  mutilated, 
and  paraded  through  the  streets  on  an  ass,  with  his  face  turned 
to  the  tail  and  with  a  wine-bladder  on  his  head. 

SYLVESTER  II. 

After  the  sudden  and  probably  violent  death  of  Gregory  V. 
(999),  the  emperor  elected,  with  the  assent  of  the  clergy  and  the 
people,  his  friend  and  preceptor,  Gerbert,  archbishop  of  Eheims, 
and  then  of  Kavenna,  to  the  papal  throne.  Gerbert  was  the  first 
French  pope,  a  man  of  rare  learning  and  ability,  and  moral  in- 
tegrity. He  abandoned  the  liberal  views  he  had  expressed  at 
the  Council  at  Bheirns,1  and  the  legend  says  that  he  sold  his  soul 
to  the  devil  for  the  papal  tiara.  He  assumed  the  significant  name 
of  Sylvester  II.,  intending  to  aid  the  youthful  emperor  (whose 
mother  was  a  Greek  princess)  in  the  realization  of  his  Utopian 
dream  to  establish  a  Graeco-Latin  empire  with  old  Rome  for  its 
capital,  and  to  rule  from  it  the  Christian  world,  as  Constantine 
the  Great  had  done  during  the  pontificate  of  Sylvester  L  But 
Otho  died  in  his  twenty-second  year,  of  Italian  fever  or  of  poison 
(1002).2 

Sylvester  II.  followed  his  imperial  pupil  a  year  after  (1003). 
His  learning,  acquired  in  part  from  the  Arabs  in  Spain,  appeared 

1  See  preceding  section,  p.  290. 

2  According  to  several  Italian  writers  he  was  poisoned  by  Stephania,  under 
the  disguise  of  a  loving  mistress,  in  revenge  of  the  murder  of  Crescentius,  her 
husband.    Muratori  and  Milman  accept  the  story,  but  it  is  not  mentioned  by 
Diftnar  (Chran.  IV.  30),  and  discredited  by  Leo,  Gfiflrer,  and  Greenwood. 
Otho  had  restored  to  the  son  of  Stephania  all  his  father's  property,  and  made 
him  prefect  of  Borne.   The  same  remorseless  Stephania  is  said  to  have  adminis- 
tered subtle  poison  to  pope  Sylvester  II* 


296  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

a  marvel  to  his  ignorant  age,  and  suggested  a  connection  with 
magic.  He  sent  to  St,  Stephen  of  Hungary  the  royal  crown, 
and,  in  a  pastoral  letter  to  Europe  where  Jerusalem  is  repre- 
sented as  crying  for  help,  he  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  cru- 
sades (1000),  ninety  years  before  they  actually  began.1 

In  the  expectation  of  the  approaching  judgment,  crowds  of 
pilgrims  flocked  to  Palestine  to  greet  the  advent  of  the  Saviour. 
But  the  first  millennium  passed,  and  Christendom  awoke  with 
a  sigh  of  relief  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1001. 

BENEDICT  VTII.,  AND  EMPEROR  HENRY  II. 

Upon  the  whole  the  Saxon  emperors  were  of  great  service  to 
the  papacy :  they  emancipated  it  from  the  tyranny  of  domestic 
political  factions,  they  restored  it  to  wealth,  and  substituted 
worthy  occupants  for  monstrous  criminals. 

During  the  next  reign  the  confusion  broke  out  once  more. 
The  arti-imperial  party  regained  the  ascendency,  and  John  Ores- 
centius,  the  son  of  the  beheaded  consul,  ruled  under  the  title  of 
Senator  and  Patricius.  But  the  Counts  of  Tusculum  held  the 
balance  of  power  pretty  evenly,  and  gradually  superseded  the 
house  of  Oescentius.  They  elected  Benedict  VIII.  (1012- 
1024),  a  member  of  their  family;  while  Crescentius  and  his 
friends  appointed  an  anti-pope  (Gregory). 

Benedict  proved  a  very  energetic  pope  in  the  defence  of  Italy 
against  the  Saracens.  He  forms  the  connecting  link  between 
the  Ottoman  and  the  Hildebrandian  popes.  He  crowned  Henry 
IL  (1014),  as  the  faithful  patron  and  protector  simply,  not  as  the 
liege-lord,  of  the  pope. 

This  last  emperor  of  the  Saxon  house  was  very  devout,  ascetic, 
and  liberal  in  endowing  bishoprics.  He  favored  clerical  celibacy. 
He  aimed  earnestly  at  a  moral  reformation  of  the  church.  He 

1See  Gfrorer,  HI.  P.  DT.  1550sq.  He  regards  Sylvester  H.  oneof  the 
greatest  of  popes  and  statesmen  who  developed  all  the  germs  of  the  system,  and 
showed  the  way  to  his  successors.  Comp.  on  him  'Milmfl.nj  Bk.  V.  ch.  13  j 
Giesebrecht,  1. 6X3  sqq.  and  690  sqq. 


S  65.  THE  SECOND  DEGKADATION  OF  TEDS  PAPACY.  297 

declared  at  a  diet,  that  he  had  made  Christ  his  heir,  and  would 
devote  all  he  possessed  to  God  and  his  church.  He  filled  the 
vacant  bishoprics  and  abbeys  with  learned  and  worthy  men  ; 
and  hence  his  right  of  appointment  was  not  resisted.  He  died 
after  a  reign  of  twenty-two  years,  and  was  buried  at  his  favorite 
place,  Bamberg  in  Bavaria,  where  he  had  founded  a  bishopric 
(1007).  He  and  his  chaste  wife,  Kunigunde,  were  canonized  by 
the  grateful  church  (1146).1 

THE  TUSCULAK  POPES.     BENEDICT  IX. 

With  Benedict  VIII.  the  papal  dignity  became  hereditary  in 
the  Tusculan  family.  He  had  bought  it  by  open  bribery.  He 
was  followed  by  his  brother  John  XIX.,  a  layman,  who  bought 
it  likewise,  and  passed  in  one  day  through  all  the  clerical  degrees. 

After  his  death  in  1033,  his  nephew  Theophylact,  a  boy  of 
only  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,2  ascended  the  papal  throne  under 
the  name  of  Benedict  IX.  (1033-1045).  His  election  was  a 

1  His  historian,  bishop  Thitmar  or  Ditmar  of  Mersebuig,  relates  that  Henry 
never  held  carnal  intercourse  with  his  wife,  and  submitted  to  rigid  penances  and 
frequent  flagellations  for  the  subjugation  of  animal  passions.    But  Hase  (J  160, 
tenth  ed.)  remarks:  "Die  Mdnche,  die  ear  m  Gunsten  dear  BisthZmer  beraubt  hat, 
dachten  ihn  nur  ebon  van  derHvtte  gerettet;  auch  den  Heiligensthein  derjungfraw- 
licken  Kaiserin  hat  der  Teufd  zu  verdunMn  gewusst"    Comp.  G.  Schurzfleisch, 
De  innocentia  Qimig.,  Wit.,  1700.  A.  Noel,  Leben  der  hett.  Kunigunde,  Luxemb. 
1856.  For  a  high  and  just  estimate  of  Henry's  character  see  Giesebrecht  II.  94-96. 
"The  legend,"  he  says,  "describes  Henry  as  a  monk  in  purple,  as  a  penitent 
with  a  crown,  who  can  scarcely  drag  along  his  lame  body ;  it  places  Kunigunde 
at  his  side  not  as  wife  but  as  a  nun,  who  in  prayer  and  mortification  of  the  flesh, 
seeks  with  him  the  path  to  heaven.    History  gives  a  very  different  picture  of 
king  Henry  and  his  wife.    It  bears  witness  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  active 
and  energetic  rulers  that  ever  sat  on  the  German  throne,  and  possessed  a  sharp 
understanding  and  a  power  of  organization  very  rare  in  those  times.    It  was  a 
misfortune  for  Germany  that  such  a  statesman  had  to  spend  most  of  his  life  in 
internal  and  external  wars.    Honorable  as  he  was  in  arms,  he  would  have 
acquired  a  higher  fame  in  times  of  peace." 

2  Eodulfus  Glaber,  Histor.  mi  tmporis,  IV-  5  (in  Migne,  Tom.  142,  p.  979) : 
"puerferme  (fere)  deeenntef*  but  in  V.  5:  "fuerat  sedi  vrdimriw  quiidam  puer 
circUer  annorum  duodecim,  contra  jus  nefasgue"    Hefele  stated,  in  the  first  ed. 
(IV.  673),  that  Benedict  was  eighteen  when  elected.  In  the  second  ed.  (p.  706) 
he  corrects  himself  and  makes  him  twelve  years  at  his  election. 


298  EOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

mere  money  bargain  between  the  Tusculan  family  and  tne  venal 
clergy  and  populace  of  Koine.  Once  more  the  Lord  took  from 
Jerusalem  and  Judah  the  stay  and  the  staff,  and  gave  children 
to  be  their  princes,  and  babes  to  rule  over  them.1 

This  boy-pope  fully  equaled  and  even  surpassed  John  XII.  in 
precocious  wickedness.  He  combined  the  childishness  of  Cali- 
gula and  the  viciousness  of  Heliogabalus.2  He  grew  worse  as  he 
advanced  in  years.  He  ruled  like  a  captain  of  banditti,  com- 
mittal murders  and  adulteries  in  open  day-light,  robbed  pilgrims 
on  the  graves  of  martyrs,  and  turned  Eome  into  a  den  of  thieves. 
These  crimes  went  unpunished ;  for  who  could  judge  a  pope  ? 
And  his  brother,  Gregory,  was  Patrician  of  the  city.  At  one 
time,  it  is  reported,  he  had  the  crazy  notion  of  marrying  his 
cousin  and  enthroning  a  woman  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter;  but 
the  father  of  the  intended  bride  refused  unless  he  abdicated  the 
papacy.3  Desiderius,  who  himself  afterwards  became  pope 
(Victor  III.),  shrinks  from  describing  the  detestable  life  of 
this  Benedict,  who,  he  says,  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Simon 
Magus  rather  than  of  Simon  Peter,  and  proceeded  in  a  career 
of  rapine,  murder,  and  every  species  of  felony,  until  even  the 
people  of  Eome  became  weary  of  his  iniquities,  and  expelled 
him  from  the  city.  Sylvester  HI.  was  elected  antipope  (Jan., 
1044),  but  Benedict  soon  resumed  the  papacy  with  all  his 
vices  (April  10,  1044),  then  sold  it  for  one  or  two  thousand 
pounds  silver*  to  an  archpresbyter  John  Gratian  of  the  same 


1  Gregorovius,  IV.  42,  says:  "Mit  Benedict  IX.  erreichte  das  Papstthwn  jencn 
aussersten  Orad  des  sittliehen  Verfatts,  welcher  nach  den  Geseteen  der  mensctiichcti 
Natur  den  UmscHagzum  Bessern  erzeugt." 

'Bonitho,  ed.  JaffS  p,  50:  "Post  multa  twrpia  cduUeria  et  homicidia  manibu* 
suis  perpetrata,  postrenw  cum  vettet  cmsobnnam  accipere  cmiugem,  filiam  scilicet 
Oirardi  de  Saxo,  et  tile  diceret:  nuflo  modo  se  daturum  nisi  renunciaret  pontificatui 
ad  qaendam  sneerdotem,  Johannem  se  wntidit."  A  similar  report  is  found  in  the 
^Twwto  AUahewes.  But  Steindorff  and  Hefele  (IV.  707)  disciedit  the  mar- 
riage project  as  a  malignant  invention  or  fable. 

*  An  old  catak>gue  of  popes  (in  Muratori,  Script.  ILL  2,  p.  345)  states  the  earn 
as  mfiU  libra  denariorum  Pap&xium,  but  Benno  as  libra  miUe  qwingente.  Others 
give  two  thousand  pounds  as  the  sum.  Otto  of  Freising  adds  that  Benedict 


I  66.  HENEY  III.  AND  THE  SYNOD  OF  SUTEL    299 

house  (May,  1045),  after  he  had  emptied  the  treasury  of  every 
article  of  value,  and,  rueing  the  bargain,  he  claimed  the  dignity 
again  (Nov.,  1047),  till  he  was  finally  expelled  from  Some  ( July; 
1048). 

GREGORY  VI.  • 

John  Gratian  assumed  the  name  Gregory  YL  He  was 
revered  as  a  saint  for  his  chastity  which,  on  account  of  its 
extreme  rarity  in  Koine,  was  called  an  angelic  virtue.  He 
bought  the  papacy  with  the  sincere  desire  to  reform  it,  and  made 
the  monk  Hildebrand,  the  future  reformer,  his  chaplain.  He 
acted  on  the  principle  that  the  end  sanctifies  the  means. 

Thus  there  were  for  a  while  three  rival  popes.  Benedict  TX- 
(before  his  final  expulsion)  held  the  Lateran,  Gregory  VI.  Maria 
Maggiore,  Sylvester  IIL  St.  Peter's  and  the  Vatican.1 

Their  feuds  reflected  the  general  condition  of  Italy.  The 
streets  of  Eome  swarmed  with  hired  assassins,  the  whole  country 
with  robbers,  the  virtue  of  pilgrims  was  openly  assailed,  even 
churches  and  the  tombs  of  the  apostles  were  desecrated  by  blood- 
shed. 

Again  the  German  emperor  had  to  interfere  for  the  restoration 
of  order. 

§  66.  Senary  IIL  <wd  the  Synod  of  Swtri.    Deposition  of  three 
rival  Popes.    A.D.  1046. 

BONIZO  (or  Bonitho,  bishop  of  Sutri,  afterwards  of  Piacenza,  and  friend 
of  Gregory  VTL,  d.  1089) :  Liber  ad  amicum,  s.  de  persecwtione  Eccle* 
sice  (in  (EFBLH  Seriptores  rerum  Boicarum  27.,  794,  and  better  in 
JAFFE'S  Mmurnmta  Gregoriana,  1865).  Contains  in  lib.  V.  a  history 
of  the  popes  from  Benedict  IX.  to  Gregory  VII.,  with  many  errors. 

BODULFITS  GLABEB  (or  Glaber  Radulfus,  monk  of  Cluny,  about  1046): 
IRstoria  sui  temporis  (in  Migne,  Tom.  142). 

reserved  besides  the  Peter's  pence  from  England.  See  Giesehrecht,  II.  643,  and 
Hefele  IV.  707. 

1  Migne,  Tom.  141,  p.  1343.  Steindorff  and  Hefele  (IV.  708)  dissent  from 
this  nsual  view  of  a  three-fold  schism,  and  consider  Gregory  as  the  only  pope- 
Bnt  all  three  were  summoned  to  the  Synod  of  Sutri  and  deposed;  consequently 
they  must  all  have  claimed  possession. 


300  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

DESIDEBIUS  (Abbot  of  M.  Cassino,  afterwards  pope  Victor  III.,  d.  1080): 

De  Miraculis  a  8.  Benedict®  aliisgue  monachis  Oassinienslbus  gestb 

Dialog.,  in  "  Bibl.  Patr."    Lugd.  XVIIL  853. 
Annales  JRoma/ii  in  Pertz,  Mon*  Germ.  VII. 
Annales  Corbeienses,  in  Pertz,  Hon.  Germ.  V. ;  and  in  Jafie,  Monumenta 

Cqrbeiensia,  Berlin,  1864. 
ERNST  BTEESTDORPF:  Jahrbuches  des  deutschen  Reich*  unter  Hemrich  III. 

Leipzig,  1874. 

HEFELE:  Condliengesch.  IV.  706  sqq.  (2d  ed.). 
See  Lit.  in  §  64,  especially  HOFLEB  and  WILL. 

Emperor  Henry  III.,  of  the  house  of  Franconia,  was  appealed 
to  by  the  advocates  of  reform,  and  felt  deeply  the  sad  state  of  the 
church.  He  was  only  twenty-two  years  old,  but  ripe  in  intel- 
lect, full  of  energy  and  zeal,  and  aimed  at  a  reformation  of  the 
church  under  the  control  of  the  empire,  as  Hildebrand  after- 
wards labored  for  a  reformation  of  the  church  under  the  control 
of  the  papacy. 

On  his  way  to  Eome  for  the  coronation  he  held  (Dec.  20, 
1046)  a  synod  at  Sutri,  a  small  town  about  twenty-five  miles 
north  of  Eome,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  another  synod  at 
Rome  which  completed  the  work.1  Gregory  VI.  presided  at 
first.  The  claims  of  the  three  rival  pontiffs  were  considered. 
Benedict  IX.  and  Sylvester  III.  were  soon  disposed  of,  the  first 
having  twice  resigned,  the  second  being  a  mere  intruder.  Gre- 
gory VI.  deserved  likewise  deposition  for  the  sin  of  simony  in 
buying  the  papacy;  but  as  he  had  convoked  the  synod  by  order 
of  the  emperor  and  was  otherwise  a  worthy  person,  he  was  al- 
lowed to  depose  himself  or  to  abdicate.  He  did  it  in  these 
words:  "I,  Gregory,  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  do 
hereby  adjudge  myself  to  be  removed  from  the  pontificate  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Church,  because  of  the  enormous  error  which 
by  simoniacal  impurity  has  crept  into  and  vitiated  my  election." 
Then  he  asked  the  assembled  fathers:  "Is  it  your  pleasure 

1  The  sources  differ  in  the  distribution  of  the  work  between  the  two  synods: 
some  assign  it  to  Sutri,  others  to  Borne,  others  divide  it.  Steindorff  and  Hefele 
(IV.  710)  assume  that  Gregory  and  Sylvester  were  deposed  at  Sutri;  Benedict 
(who  did  not  appear  at  Sutri)  was  deposed  in  Eome.  All  agree  that  the  new 
pope  was  elected  in  Eome. 


2  66.  HENRY  HL  AKD  THE  SY^OD  OF  STJTRL         301 

that  so  it  shall  be?"  to  which  they  unanimously  replied :  "Your 
pleasure  is  our  pleasure;  therefore  so  let  it  be/'  As  soon  as  the 
humble  pope  had  pronounced  his  own  sentence,  he  descended 
from  the  throne,  divested  himself  of  his  pontifical  robes,  and  im- 
plored pardon  on  his  knees  for  the  usurpation  of  the  highest 
dignity  in  Christendom.  He  acted  as  pope  de  facto,  and  pro- 
nounced himself  no  pope  dejure.  He  was  used  by  the  synod  for 
deposing  his  two  rivals,  and  then  for  deposing  himself.  In  that 
way  the  synod  saved  the  principle  that  the  pope  was  above  every 
human  tribunal,  and  responsible  to  God  alone.  This  view  of 
the  case  of  Gregory  rests  on  the  reports  of  Bonitho  and  Deside- 
rius.  According  to  other  reports  in  the  Annales  Cbrbeienses  and 
Peter  Damiani,  who  was  present  at  Sutri,  Gregory  was  deposed 
directly  by  the  Synod.1  At  all  events,  the  deposition  was  real 
and  final,  and  the  cause  was  the  sin  of  simony. 

But  if  simony  vitiated  an  election,  there  were  probably  few 
legitimate  popes  in  the  tenth  century  when  everything  was  venal 
and  corrupt  in  Rome.  Moreover  bribery  seems  a  small  sin  com- 
pared with  the  enormous  crimes  of  several  of  these  Judases. 
Hildebrand  recognized  Gregory  VI.  by  adopting  his  pontifical 
name  in  honor  of  his  memory,  and  yet  he  made  relentless  war 
upon  the  sin  of  simony.  He  followed  the  self-deposed  pope  as 
ohaplain  across  the  Alps  into  exile,  and  buried  him  in  peace  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 

Henry  III.  adjourned  the  Synod  of  Sutri  to  St.  Peter's  in 
JJome  for  the  election  of  a  new  pope  (Dec.  23  and  24, 1046). 
The  synod  was  to  elect,  but  no  Roman  clergyman  could  be  found 
free  of  the  pollution  of  "  simony  and  fornication."  Then  the 
king,  vested  by  the  synod  with  the  green  mantle  of  the  patriciate 
and  the  plenary  authority  of  the  electors,  descended  from  his 
throne,  and  seated  Suidger,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  a  man  of  spot- 
less character,  on  the  vacant  chair  of  St.  Peter  amid  the  loud 
hosannas  of  the  assembly.3  The  new  pope  assumed  the  name  of 

1  See  Jaffig,  SteindorJ?  and  Hefele  (IV.  711  sq.)- 

1  According  to  the  lima/.  Gorb.,  Suidger  was  elected  "canonic*  ef  syncxKcs  .. . 
unanimi  dtri  a  populi  dectwnc." 


302  FOUETH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Clement  II.,  and  crowned  Henry  emperor  on  the  festival  of 
Christmas,  on  which  Charlemagne  had  been  crowned.  The 
name  was  a  reminder  of  the  conflict  of  the  first  Clement  of  Rome 
with  Simon  Magus.  But  he  outlived  his  election  only  nine 
months,  and  his  body  was  transferred  to  his  beloved  Bamberg^ 
The  wretched  Benedict  IX.  again  took  possession  of  the  Lateran 
(till  July  16,  1048).  He  died  afterwards  in  Grotto  Ferrata, 
according  to  one  report  as  a  penitent  saint,  according  to  another 
as  a  hardened  sinner  whose  ghost  frightened  the  living.  A  third 
German  pontiff,  Poppo,  bishop  of  Brixen,  called  Damasus  II., 
was  elected,  but  died  twenty-three  days  after  his  consecration 
(Aug.  10, 1048),  of  the  Roman  fever,  if  not  of  poison. 

The  emperor,  at  the  request  of  the  Romans,  appointed  at 
Worms  in  December,  1048,  Bruno,  bishop  of  Toul,  to  the  papal 
chair.  He  was  a  man  of  noble  birth,  fine  appearance,  consider- 
able learning,  unblemished  character,  and  sincere  piety,  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  reform  which  emanated  from  Cluny. 
He  accepted  the  appointment  in  presence  of  the  Roman  depu- 
ties, subject  to  the  consent  of  the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome.1 
He  invited  the  monk  Hildebrand  to  accompany  him  in  his  pil- 
grimage to  Rome.  Hildebrand  refused  at  first,  because  Bruno 
had  not  been  canonically  elected,  but  by  the  secular  and  royal 
power;  but  he  was  persuaded  to  follow  him. 

Bruno  reached  Rome  in  the  month  of  February,  1049,  in' 
the  dress  of  a  pilgrim,  barefoot,  weeping,  regardless  of  the 
hymns  of  welcome.  His  election  was  unanimously  confirmed  by 
the  Roman  clergy  and  people,  and  he  was  solemnly  consecrated 
Feb.  12,  as  Leo  IX.  He  found  the  papal  treasury  empty,  and 
his  own  means  were  soon  exhausted.  He  chose  Hildebrand  as 
his  subdeacon,  financier,  and  confidential  adviser,  who  hereafter 
was  the  soul  of  the  papal  reform,  till  he  himself  ascended  the 
papal  throne  in  1073. 

1  So  says  TVlbert,  his  friend  and  biographer,  but  Bonitho  reports  that  Hilde- 
brand induced  him  to  submit  first  to  a  Koman  election,  since  a  pope  elected 
bj  the  emperor  was  not  an  apostolicus,  but  an  apostoticus.  See  Baxmann,  IT. 
215-217.  Comp.  also  Hunkler :  LeoIX.und  seine  Zeti.  Mainz,  1851. 


\  66.  HEKEY  IIL  AM)  THE  SYNOD  OF  SUTBL         303 

We  stand  here  at  the  close  of  the  deepest  degradation  and  on 
the  threshold  of  the  highest  elevation  of  the  papacy.  The  synod 
of  Sntri  and  the  reign  of  Leo  IX.  mark  the  beginning  of  a  dis- 
ciplinary reform.  Simony  or  the  sale  and  purchase  of  ecclesias- 
tical dignities,  and  Nicolaitism  or  the  carnal  sins  of  the  clergy, 
including  marriage,  concubinage  and  unnatural  vices,  were  the 
crying  evils  of  the  church  in  the  eyes  of  the  most  serious  men, 
especially  the  disciples  of  Cluny  and  of  St.  Eomuald.  A  refor- 
mation therefore  from  the  hierarchical  standpoint  of  the  middle 
ages  was  essentially  a  suppression  of  these  two  abuses.  And  as 
the  corruption  had  reached  its  climax  in  the  papal  chair,  the 
reformation  had  to  begin  at  the  head  before  it  could  reach  the 
members.  It  was  the  work  chiefly  of  Hildebrand  or  Gregory 
VIL,  with  whom  the  next  period  opens. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  CHUKCHE8 
AND  THEIB  SEPABATION. 

§  67.  Sources  and  lateratwre. 

The  chief  sources  on  the  beginning  of  the  controversy  between  Photras 
and  Nicolas  are  in  MJLNTSI:  Cone.  Tom.  XV.  and  XVL;  in  HAB- 
DTJIN:  Gone.  Tom.  V.  HEBGENBSTHEB  :  Monumenfo  Qrosca  ad 
Photium  ejusgue  historian,  pertinentia.  Eegensb.  1869. 

L  On  the  GBEEK  side : 

PHOTIUS  :  MSyK&cfooc  bcaroMi,  etc.  and  especially  his  Aoyoj  irspl  rqg  TOV  d-yfo* 

'Qyevjiarog  pvarayuyiae,  etc.      See   PHOTn  Opera  omnia,  ed.  Migne. 

Paris,  1860-'61,  4  voLs.    (Patr.  Or.  Tom.  CI.-CIV.)    The  Encycl. 

Letter  is  in  Tom.  II.  722-742 ;  and  his  treatise  on  the  uwrrayayta  TOV 

ayiov  TLvevfjtarog  in  Tom.  II.  279-391. 
Later  champions  i 
CJEBTTLABIIIS,    NlCOETAS   PECTORATTTS,    THEOPHYLACT  (12th  Century). 

EUTHYMTUS  ZtiGABEsrus,  PHTJBKTTS,  EtTSTBATTUS,  and  many  others. 

In  recent  times  PBOKOPOVITCH  (1772),  ZOEEKICAV  (1774^  2  vols.). 
J.  G.  PITZIPIOS  :  I/JEffL  orientate,  sa  separation  et  sa  reunion  avec  cells  de 

Rome.     Borne,  1855.    IS  Orient.   Les  rtformes  de  I 'empire  byzantm. 

Paris,  1858. 
A-  N.  MouEAVXEFp  (Euss.)  :  Question  religfause  tf  Orient  et  $  Occident. 

Moscow,  1856. 

GtTETTERE :  Lapapaute  scMsmaMque.    Par.  1868. 
A.  PIGHI/EB:  Gesch*  d.  Mrchlichen  Trennung  zwischen  dem  Orient  und 

Occident  von  den  ersten  Anfangen  bis  zur  jungsten  Gegenwart.    Man- 

chen,  1865,  2Bde.  The  author  was  a  Roman  Catholic  (Privatdocent 

der  Theol.  in  Munchen)  when  he  wrote  this  work,  but  blamed  the 

West  fully  as  much  as  the  East  for  the  schism,  and  afterwards  joined 

the  Greek  church  in  Bnssia. 
ANBBONICOS  DESOTBAGOPITLOS  :  'Itrropfa  TOV  <%&r/<aroc«  Lips.  1867.  Also 

his  Bf£;U0&faj7  eiudwr.    Lips.  1866. 
THEODOBUS  LASCABIS  JUNIOR:  De  Processione  Spirttus  jS.  OratioApo- 

logetica.    London  and  Jena,  1875. 

1L  On  the  LATKT  (Eoman  CathoKc)  side: 

BATBAMNTTS   (Oontra  Qroscorvm  Opposita)*  ANBEIAT  of  Canterbury 

(De  Proeessione  jStpiritw  &  1098);  PETBUS  CHBYSOLANUS   (1112); 

THOMAS  AQOTNTAS  (d.  1274),  etc. 

304 


?  67.  SOURCES  AND  LITERATURE.        305 

LEO  ALLATITJS  ( AJlacci,  a  Greek  of  duos,  but  converted  to  the  Roman 
Church  and  guardian  of  the  Vatican  library,  d.  1669) :  De  ecclmcs 
Occident,  atque  orient*  p&rpetua  oonsensione.  Cologne,  1648, 4to. ;  new 
ed.  1665  and  1694.  Also  bis  Grcecia  orthodoxa,  1609,  2  vols.,  new 
ed.  by  Lammer,  Freib.  i.  B.  1864  sq. ;  and  Ms  special  fcracte  on  Pur- 
gatory (Rom.  1655),  and  on  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
(Rom.  1658). 

MAIMBURG  :  Hist,  du  schism  des  Grecs.    Paris,  1677, 4to. 

STEPH.  DE  ALTIMUEA  (Mich,  le  Quien):  Panoplia  gonfra  srMxwi 
GrcBCorum.  Par.  1738, 4to. 

MICHAEL  LE  QUIEN  (d.  1733):  Orient  Christianus.  Par.  EtfO,  3 
vols.  foL 

Abbe  JAGER:  Histoire  de  Photius  dtapres  ks  monument  originausr  2nd 
ed.  Par.  1845. 

LuiGl  TOSTI:    Storia,   delPorigine  detto  scisma  greco.    Firenze   1856. 

2  vols. 

H.  LAMMEE,  :  Papst  Nikolam  I.  und  die  byzantiniscfie  jStaafaMrche  seiner 
ZeU.  Berlin,  1857. 

AD.  D'AVBIL:  Documents  refa&fs  aux  tylises  de  F  Orient,  consid&ree  dans 
leur  rapports  avec  le  saint-sfege  de  Rome.  Paris,  1862. 

KAHL  WERNER  :  GeschichtederapoLundpolemischenLHeratur.  Schaft- 
hausen,  1864,  voL  HL  3  ff. 

J.  HERGENROTHER  (Pro£  of  Church  History  in  Wurzburg,  now  Cardi- 
nal In  Rome) :  Photius,  Patriarch  von  Constantinopel.  Sein  Leben, 
seine  Schriften,  und  das  griechische  Scfiima.  Regensburg,  1867-1869, 

3  vols. 

C.  Jos.  VON  HEFELE  (Bishop  of  Rottenburg) :  Oondli^ngeschichte.  Frei- 
burg i.  B.,  vols.  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VH.  (revised  ed.  1879  sqq.) 

HE.  PROTESTANT  writers: 

J.  G.  WALCH  (Luth. ) :  IRstoria  controversm  GrcBcorum  Latinorumque  de 
Processione  jSp.  S.  Jena,  1751. 

GIBBON:  Decline  and  Fall,  etc.,  Gh.  LX.  He  views  the  schism  as  one 
of  the  causes  which  precipitated  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman 
empire  in  the  East  by  alienating  its  most  useful  allies  and  strength- 
ening its  most  dangerous  enemies. 

JOHN  MASON  NEALE  (Anglican) :  A  History  of  the  Holy  Eastern  Church. 
Lond.  1850.  Introd.  vol.  II.  1093-1169. 

EDMUND  S.  FOTTLKES  (Anglic.) :  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Addition 
of  the  word  Filwgue  to  the  Greed  of  the  West.  Lond.  1867. 

W.  GABS :  Symbolic  der  griechischen  Krche.    Berlin,  1872* 

H.  B.  SWETE  (Anglic.) :  Marly  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Cambr.  1873 ;  and  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Procestion  of  the  Hofy 
Spirit  from  the  Apost.  Age  to  the  Death  of  Charlemagne.  Cambr.  1876. 


306  FOURTH  PEBIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

IV.  OLD  CATHOLIC  WRITERS  (irenical) : 

JOSEPH  LAKGEJT  :  Die  Trmitarische  Lehrdifferenz  zwischen  der  a&endZandi* 
schen  wid  der  morgenldTtdischen,  Eirclie.  Bonn,  1876. 

The  Proceedings  of  the  second  Old  Catholic  Union-Conference  in  Bonn, 
1875,  ed.  in  German  by  HEEBTBICH  REUSCH  ;  English  ed.  with  intro- 
duction by  Canon  LIDDON  (Lond.  1876) ;  Amer.  ed.  transl.  by  Dr. 
SAMUEL  BUEL,  with  introduction  by  Dr.  E.  NEVEST  (N.  Y.  1876). 
The  union-theses  of  Bonn  are  given  in  SCHAFF  :  Greeds  of  Ghristen- 
d<m3  voL  II.,  545-650. 

§  68.  The  Consensus  and  Dissensus  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 

Churches. 

No  two  churches  in  the  world  are  at  this  day  so  ranch  alike, 
and  yet  so  averse  to  each  other  as  the  Oriental  or  Greek,  and  the 
Occidental  or  Roman.  They  hold,  as  an  inheritance  from  the 
patristic  age,  essentially  the  same  body  of  doctrine,  the  same 
canons  of  discipline,  the  same  form  of  worship;  and  yet  their 
antagonism  seems  irreconcilable.  The  very  affinity  breeds 
jealousy  and  friction.  They  are  equally  exclusive :  the  Oriental 
Church  claims  exclusive  orthodoxy,  and  looks  upon  Western 
Christendom  as  heretical;  the  Roman  Church  claims  exclusive 
catholicity y  and  considers  all  other  churches  as  heretical  or  schis- 
matical  sects.  The  one  is  proud  of  her  creed,  the  other  of  her 
dominion.  In  all  the  points  of  controversy  between  Romanism 
and  Protestantism  the  Greek  Church  is  much  nearer  the  Roman, 
and  yet  there  is  no  more  prospect  of  a  union  between  them  than 
of  a  union  between  Rome  and  Geneva,  or  Moscow  and  Oxford. 
The  Pope  and  the  Czar  are  the  two  most  powerful  rival-despots 
in  Christendom,  Where  the  two  churches  meet  in  closest  prox- 
imity, over  the  traditional  spots  of  the  birth  and  tomb  of  our 
Saviour,  at  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem,  they  hate  each  other  most 
bitterly,  and  their  ignorant  and  bigoted  monks  have  to  be  kept 
from  violent  collision  by  Mohammedan  soldiers. 

I.  Let  us  first  briefly  glance  at  the  consensus. 
Both  churches  own  the  Nicene  creed  (with  the  exception  of 
the  FiRoque),  and  all  the  doctrinal  decrees  of  the  seven  cecu- 


5  68.  THE  CONSENSUS  AND  DISSENSUS,  ETC.          307 

menical  Synods  from  A,  D.  325  to  787,  including  the  worship 
of  images. 

They  agree  moreover  in  most  of  the  post-oecumenical  or 
mediaeval  doctrines  against  which  the  evangelical  Reformation 
protested,  namely :  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  tradition  as  a 
joint  role  of  faith  with  the  holy  Scriptures ;  the  worship  of  the 
Yirgin  Mary,  of  the  saints,  their  pictures  (not  statues),  and 
relics;  justification  by  faith  and  good  works,  as  joint  conditions ; 
the  merit  of  good  works,  especially  voluntary  celibacy  and 
poverty ;  the  seven  sacraments  or  mysteries  (with  minor  differ- 
ences as  to  confirmation,  and  extreme  unction  or  chrisma) ;  bap- 
tismal regeneration  and  the  necessity  of  water-baptism  for  salva- 
tion; transubstantiation  and  the  consequent  adoration  of  the 
sacramental  elements ;  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  for  the  living  and 
the  dead,  with  prayers  for  the  dead;  priestly  absolution  by 
divine  authority ;  three  orders  of  the  ministry,  and  the  necessity 
of  an  episcopal  hierarchy  up  to  the  patriarchal  dignity;  and  a 
vast  number  of  religious  rites  and  ceremonies. 

In  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  the  Greek  Church  is  less 
explicit,  yet  agrees  with  the  Roman  in  assuming  a  middle  state 
of  purification,  and  the  efficacy  of  prayers  and  masses  for  the 
departed.  The  dogma  of  transubstantiation,  too,  is  not  so  clearly 
formulated  in  the  Greek  creed  as  in  the  Roman,  but  the  differ- 
ence is  very  small.  As  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Greek 
Church  has  never  prohibited  the  popular  use,  and  the  Russian 
Church  even  favors  the  free  circulation  of  her  authorized  ver- 
nacular version.  But  the  traditions  of  the  Greek  Church  are 
as  strong  a  barrier  against  the  exercise  of  private  judgment  and 
exegetical  progress  as  those  of  Rome. 

IL  The  dissensus  of  the  two  churches  covers  the  following 
points : 

1.  The  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  the  East  teaching  the 
single  procession  from  the  Father  only,  the  West  (since 
Augustin),  the  double  procession  from  the  Father  and  the 
8m  (FMogue). 


308  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  J>.  590-1049. 

2.  The  universal  authority  and  infallibility  of  the  pope5 
which  is  asserted  by  the  Roman,  denied  by  the  Greek  Church. 
The    former  is  a  papal    monarchy,  the  latter  a  patriarchal 
oligarchy.     There  are,  according  to  the  Greek  theory,  five 
patriarchs  of  equal  rights,  the  pope  of  Rome,  the  patriarchs 
of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem.    They 
were  sometimes  compared  to  the  five  senses  in  the  body.    To 
them  was  afterwards  added  the  patriarch  of  Moscow  for  the 
Russian    church    (which    is    now    governed    by  the    "Holy 
Synod ").    To  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  formerly  conceded  a 
primacy  of  honor,  but  this  primacy  passed  with  the  seat  of 
empire  to  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  therefore  signed 
himself  "Archbishop  of  New  Rome  and  (Ecumenical  Patri- 
arch."1 

3.  The  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  pro- 
claimed as  a  dogma  by  the  pope  in  1854,  disowned  by  the  East, 
which,  however,  in  the  practice  of  Mariolatry  fully  equals  the 
West. 

4.  The  marriage  of  the  lower  clergy,  allowed  by  the  Eastern, 
forbidden  by  the  Roman  Church  (yet  conceded  by  the  pope  to 
the  United  Greeks). 

5.  The  withdrawal  of  the  cup  from  the  laity.    In  the  Greek 
Church  the  laymen  receive  the  consecrated  bread  dipped  in  the 
wine  and  administered  with  a  golden  spoon. 

6.  A  number  of  minor  ceremonies  peculiar  to  the  Eastern 
Church,  such  as  trine  immersion  in  baptism,  the  use  of  leavened 
bread  in  the  eucharist,  infant-communion,  the  repetition  of  the 
holy  unction  (TO  ei)%£hov}  in  sickness. 

Notwithstanding  these ,  differences  the  Roman  Church  has 
always  been  obliged  to  recognize  the  Greek  Church  as  essentially 
orthodox,  though  schismatic.  And,  certainly,  the  differences 
are  insignificant  as  compared  with  the  agreement.  The  sep- 
aration and  antagonism  must  therefore  be  explained  fully  aa 
much  and  more  from  an  alienation  of  spirit  and  change  of 

condition. 

1  See  the  passages  in  Gieseler  II.  227  sq. 


2  69.  THE  CAUSES  OF  SEPAKATJON.  309 

NOTE  ON  THE  EASTERN"  OSTHODOX  CHtJBCH. 

For  the  sake  of  brevity  the  usual  terminology  is  employed  in  this 
chapter,  but  the  proper  name  of  the  Greek  Church  is  the  HOLY 
ORIENTAL  ORTHODOX  APOSTOLIC  CHUBCH.  The  terms  mostly  in  use 
in  that  church  are  Orthodox  and  Oriental  (Eastern).  The  term  Greek  is 
used  in  Turkey  only  of  the  Greeks  proper  (the  Hellens) ;  but  the  great 
majority  of  Oriental  Christians  in  Turkey  and  Russia  belong  to  the 
Slavonic  race.  The  Greek  is  the  original  and  classical  language  of  the 
Oriental  Church,  in  which  the  most  important  works  are  written ;  but  it 
has  been  practically  superseded  in  Asiatic  Turkey  by  the  Arabic,  in 
Russia  and  European  Turkey  by  the  Slavonic. 

The  Oriental  or  Orthodox  Church  now  embraces  three  distinct  divi- 
sions: 

1.  The  Orthodox  Church  in  Turkey  (European  Turkey  and  the  Greek 
islands,  Asia  Minor,  Syria  and  Palestine)  under  the  patriarchs  of  Con- 
stantinople, Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem. 

2.  The  state  church  of  Russia,  formerly  under  the  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, then  under  the  patriarch  of  Moscow,  since  1725  under  the 
Holy  Synod  of  St  Petersburg  and  the  headship  of  the  Czar.    This  is  by 
far  the  largest  and  most  important  branch. 

3.  The  church  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece  under  the  Holy  Synod  of 
Greece  (since  1833). 

There  are  also  Greek  Christians  in  Egypt,  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula  (the 
monks  of  the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine),  the  islands  of  the  ^Jgean  Sea,  in 
Malta,  Servia,  Austria,  etc. 

Distinct  from  the  Orthodox  Church  are  the  Oriental  ticTiismatics,  the 
Nestorians,  Armenians,  Jacobites,  Ctopts,  and  Abyssinian*,  who  separated 
from  the  former  on  the  ground  of  the  christological  controversies.  The 
Maronites  of  Mount  Lebanon  were  originally  also  schismatics,  but  sub- 
mitted to  the  pope  during  the  Crusades. 

The  United  Greeks  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  pope,  but  retain 
certain  peculiarities  of  the  Oriental  Church,  aa  the  marriage  of  the  lower 
clergy,  the  native  language  in  worship.  They  are  found  in  lower  Italy, 
Austria,  Russia,  and  Poland. 

The  Bulgarians,  who  likewise  call  themselves  orthodox,  and  who  by  the 
treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878  have  been  formed  into  a  distinct  principality, 
occupy  an  independent  position  between  the  Greek  and  the  Roman 
Churches. 

§  69.  The  Cames  of  Separation. 

Church  history,  like  the  world's  history,  moves  wMi  the  SUB 
from  East  to  West.  In  the  first  six  centuries  the  Eastern  or 
Greek  church  represented  the  main  current  of  life  and  progress, 


310  FOUBTH  PEBIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  Latin  church  chiefly  assumed  the  task  of 
christianizing  and  civilizing  the  new  races  which  came  upon  the 
stage.  The  Greek  church  has  had  no  Middle  Ages  in  the  usual 
sense,  and  therefore  no  Reformation.  She  planted  Christianity 
among  the  Slavonic  races,  but  they  were  isolated  from  the 
progress  of  European  history,  and  have  not  materially  affected 
either  the  doctrine  or  polity  or  cultus  of  the  church.  Theit 
conversion  was  an  external  expansion,  not  an  internal  develop- 
ment 

The  Greek  and  Latin  churches  were  never  organically  united 
under  one  government,  but  differed  considerably  from  the  begin- 
ning in  nationality,  language,  and  various  ceremonies.  These 
differences,  however,  did  not  interfere  with  the  general  harmony 
of  faith  and  Christian  life,  nor  prevent  eodperation  against  com- 
mon foes.  As  long  and  as  far  as  the  genuine  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity directed  them,  the  diversity  was  an  element  of  strength  to 
the  common  cause. 

The  principal  sees  of  the  East  were  directly  founded  by  the 
apostles — with  the  exception  of  Constantinople — and  had  even  a 
clearer  title  to  apostolic  succession  and  inheritance  than  Borne. 
The  Greek  church  took  the  lead  in  theology  down  to  the  sixth 
or  seventh  century,  and  the  Latin  gratefully  learned  from  her 
All  the  oecumenical  Councils  were  held  on  the  soil  of  the  Byzan- 
tine empire  in  or  near  Constantinople,  and  carried  on  in  the 
Greek  language.  The  great  doctrinal  controversies  on  the  holjf 
Trinity  and  Christology  were  fought  out  in  the  East,  yet  not 
without  the  powerful  aid  of  the  more  steady  and  practical  West. 
Athanasius,  when  an  exile  from  Alexandria,  found  refuge  and 
support  in  the  bishop  of  Borne.  Jerome,  the  most  learned  of 
the  Latin  fathers  and  a  friend  of  Pope  Bamasus,  was  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  East  and  the  West,  and  concluded  his 
labors  in  Bethlehem.  Pope  Leo  I.  was  the  theological  master- 
spirit who  controlled  the  council  of  Ghalcedon,  and  shaped  the 
orthodox  formula  concerning  the  two  natures  in  the  one  person 
of  Christ.  Yet  this  very  pope  strongly  protested  against  the 


2  69.  THE  CAUSES  OP  SEPABATION.  311 

action  of  the  Council  which,  in  conformity  with  a  canon  of  the 
second  oecumenical  Council,  put  him  on  a  par  with  the  new 
bishop  of  Constantinople. 

And  here  we  approach  the  secret  of  the  ultimate  separation 
and  incurable  antagonism  of  the  churches.  It  is  due  chiefly  to 
three  causes.  The  first  cause  is  the  politico-ecclesiastical  rivalry 
of  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  backed  by  the  Byzantine  em- 
pire, and  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  connection  with  the  new  Ger- 
man empire.  The  second  cause  is  the  growing  centralization 
and  overbearing  conduct  of  the  Latin  church  in  and  through  the 
papacy.  The  third  cause  is  the  stationary  character  of  the  Greek 
and  the  progressive  character  of  the  Latin  church  during  the 
middle  ages.  The  Greek  church  boasts  of  the  imaginary  per- 
fection of  her  creed.  She  still  produced  considerable  scholars 
and  divines,  as  Maximus,  John  of  Damascus,  Photius,  OEcu- 
menius,  and  Theophylact,  but  they  mostly  confined  themselves 
to  the  work  of  epitomizing  and  systematizing  the  traditional 
theology  of  the  Greek  fathers,  and  produced  no  new  ideas,  as  if 
all  wisdom  began  and  ended  with  the  old  oecumenical  Councils. 
She  took  no  interest  in  the  important  anthropological  and  soteri- 
ological  controversies  which  agitated  the  Latin  church  in  the  age 
of  St.  Augustin,  and  she  continued  to  occupy  the  indefinite  posi- 
tion of  the  first  centuries  on  the  doctrines  of  sin  and  grace.  On 
the  other  hand  she  was  much  distracted  and  weakened  by  barren 
metaphysical  controversies  on  the  abstrusest  questions  of  theology 
and  christology ;  and  these  quarrels  facilitated  the  rapid  progress 
of  IsUm,  which  conquered  the  lands  of  the  Bible  and  pressed  hard 
on  Constantinople.  When  the  Greek  church  became  stationary, 
Hie  Latin  church  began  to  develop  her  greatest  energy;  she  be- 
•came  the  fruitful  mother  of  new  and  vigorous  nations  of  the 
North  and  West  of  Europe,  produced  scholastic  and  mystic  theo- 
logy and  a  new  order  of  civilization,  built  magnificent  cathedrals, 
discovered  a  new  Continent,  invented  the  art  of  printing,  and 
with  the  revival  of  learning  prepared  the  way  for  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  the  world*  Thus  the  Latin  daughter  outgrew  the 


312  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-lb41. 

Greek  mother,  and  is  numerically  twice  as  strong,  without  count- 
ing the  Protestant  secession.  At  the  same  time  the  Eastern 
church  still  may  look  forward  to  a  new  future  among  the 
Slavonic  races  which  she  has  christianized.  What  she  needs  is 
a  revival  of  the  spirit  and  power  of  primitive  Christianity. 

When  once  the  two  churches  were  alienated  in  spirit  and  en* 
gaged  in  an  unchristian  race  for  supremacy,  all  the  little  doctri- 
nal and  ritualistic  differences  which  had  existed  long  before, 
assumed  an  undue  weight,  and  were  hranded  as  heresies  and 
crimes.  The  bishop  of  Eome  sees  in  the  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople an  ecclesiastical  upstart  who  owed  his  power  to  political 
influence,  not  to  apostolic  origin.  The  Eastern  patriarchs  look 
upon  the  Pope  as  an  anti-christian  usurper  and  as  the  first  Pro- 
testant. They  stigmatize  the  papal  supremacy  as  "  the  chief 
heresy  of  the  latter  days,  which  flourishes  now  as  its  predecessor, 
Arianism,  flourished  in  former  days,  and  which  like  it,  will  in 
like  manner  be  cast  down  and  vanish  away."1 

§  70.  The  Patriarch  and  the  Pope.    Pkotius  and  Nicolas. 

Comp.  2  61  (p.  273),  the  Lit.  in  g  67  (p.  304),  especially  the  letters  of 
Photius  and  Nicolas. 

HEBGENROTHEB:  Photius  (Eegensb.  1867-69,  vol.  L  <J73  sqq.;  505  sqq.; 
and  the  second  vol.),  and  his  Monumenta  Gr&ca  ad  Phoiium  ejus- 
gue  historiam  pertinentw  (Ratisb.  1869,  181  pages).  MILMAST: 
Mst.  of  Latin  Christianity,  Bk.V.  Oh.  IV.  HEPELB  IV.  224  sqq.; 
384  sqq. ;  436  sqq.  The  chief  documents  are  also  given  by  GrtESELEB 
H.  213  sqq.  (Am.  ed.) 

The  doctrinal  difference  on  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
will  be  considered  in  the  chapter  on  the  Theological  Con- 
troversies. Although  it  existed  before  the  schism,  it  assumed 
a  practical  importance  only  in  connection  with  the  broader 
ecclesiastical  and  political  conflict  between  the  patriarch  and 
the  pope,  between  Constantinople  and  Eome. 

The  first  serious  outbreak  of  this  conflict  took  place  after  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century,  when  Photius  and  Nicolas,  two 

1  EncycL  Epistle  of  the  Eastern  Patriarchs,  1844,  \  & 


S  70.  THE  PATEIABCH  AND  THE  POPE.       313 

of  the  ablest  representatives  of  the  rival  churches,  came  into 
collision.  Photius  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  patriarchs,  as 
Nicolas  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  popes.  The  former  was  super- 
ior in  learning,  the  latter  in  statesmanship ;  while  in  moral  inte- 
grity, official  pride  and  obstinacy  both  were  fairly  matched,  except 
that  the  papal  ambition  towered  above  the  patriarchal  dignity. 
Photius  would  tolerate  no  superior,  Nicolas  no  equal ;  the  one 
stood  on  the  Council  of  Chafcedon,  the  other  on  Pseudo-Isidor. 

The  contest  between  item  was  at  first  personal.  The  deposi- 
tion of  Ignatius  as  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  for  rebuking 
the  immorality  of  Csesar  Bardas,  and  the  election  of  Photius, 
then  a  mere  layman,  in  his  place  (858),  were  arbitrary  and 
uncanonical  acts  which  created  a  temporary  schism  in  the  East, 
and  prepared  the  way  for  a  permanent  schism  between  the  East 
and  the  West.  Nicolas,  being  appealed  to  as  mediator  by  both 
parties  (first  by  Photius),  assumed  the  haughty  air  of  supreme 
judge  on  the  basis  of  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals,  but 
was  at  first  deceived  by  his  own  legates.  The  controversy  was 
complicated  by  the  Bulgarian  quarrel.  King  Bogoris  had  been 
converted  to  Christianity  by  missionaries  from  Constantinople 
(861),  but  soon  after  applied  to  Rome  for  teachers,  and  the  pope 
eagerly  seized  this  opportunity  to  extend  his  jurisdiction  (866). 

Nicolas,  in  a  Roman  Synod  (863),  decided  in  favor  of  the 
innocent  Ignatius,  and  pronounced  sentence  of  deposition  against 
Photius  with  a  threat  of  excommunication  in  case  of  disobe- 
dience.1 Photius,  enraged  by  this  conduct  and  the  Bulgarian 

1  The  Synod,  claiming  to  be  the  infallible  organ  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  com- 
pared Photius  with  a  robber  and  adulterer  for  obtruding  himself  into  the  see  of 
Constantinople  during  the  lifetime  of  Ignatius,  deprived  him  of  all  priestly 
honors  and  functions  "  by  authority  of  Almighty  God,  St  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
the  princes  of  the  apostles,  of  all  saints,  of  the  six  [why  not  seven  ?]  oecumeni- 
cal councils,  as  also  by  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  threatened  him 
and  all  his  adherents  with  the  anathema  and  excommunication  from  the 
encharist  till  the  moment  of  death,  "that  no  one  may  dare  hereafter  from  the 
state  of  the  laity  to  break  into  the  camp  of  the  Lord,  as  has  often  been  the 
case  in  the  church  of  Constantinople."  See  on  this  Synod  Hergenrdther,  Phot. 
L  519  sqq.,  and  Hefele  IV.  269  sqq. 


314  FOUBTH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

interference,  held  a  counter-synod,  and  deposed  in  turn  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter  (867).  In  his  famous  Encyclical  Letter 
of  invitation  to  the  Eastern  patriarchs,  he  charged  th§  whole 
Western  church  with  heresy  and  schism  for  interfering  with 
the  jurisdiction  over  the  Bulgarians,  for  fasting  on  Saturday, 
for  abridging  the  time  of  Lent  by  a  week,  for  taking  milk- 
food  (milk,  cheese,  and  butter)  during  the  quadragesimal  fast, 
for  enforcing  clerical  celibacy,  and  despising  priests  who  lived 
in  virtuous  matrimony,  and,  most  of  all,  for  corrupting  the 
Nicene  Creed  by  the  insertion  of  the  Mliogue,  and  thereby 
introducing  two  principles  into  the  Holy  Trinity.1 

This  letter  clearly  indicates  all  the  doctrinal  and  ritual 
differences  which  caused  and  perpetuated  the  schism  to  this  day. 
The  subsequent  history  is  only  a  renewal  of  the  same  charges 
aggravated  by  the  misfortunes  of  the  Greek  church,  and  the 
arrogance  and  intolerance  of  old  Rome. 

Photius  fell  with  the  murder  of  his  imperial  patron,  Michael 
HI.  (Sept.  23,  867).  He  was  imprisoned  in  a  convent,  and 
deprived  of  society,  even  of  books.  He  bore  his  Dodsfortune 
with  great  dignity,  and  nearly  all  the  Greek  bishops  remained 
faithful  to  him.  Ignatius  was  restored  after  ten  years  of  exile 
by  the  emperor  Basil,  the  Macedonian  (867-886),  and  entered 
into  communication  with  Pope  Hadrian  H.  (Dec.  867).  He 
convened  a  general  council  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia  (October, 
869),  which  is  numbered  by  the  Latins  as  the  Eighth  (Ecumeni- 
cal Council.  The  pontifical  legates  presided  and  presented  a 
formula  of  union  which  every  bishop  was  required  to  sign 
before  taking  part  in  the  proceedings,  and  which  contained  an 
anathema  against  all  heresies,  and  against  Photius  and  his 
adherents.  Bat  the  council  was  poorly  attended  (the  number 
of  bishops  being  at  first  only  eighteen).  Photius  was  forced  to 
appear  in  the  fifth  session  (Oct.  20),  but  on  being  questioned 

1  See  the  Encydiea  ad  Patriarchs  Orientate  in  the  original  Greek  in  Photius, 
Opera  II.  723-742  (ed.  Migne),  also  in  Gieseler  IL  216  sq.  Baronius  (ad 
ann.  863  no.  34sq.)  gives  it  in  Latin. 


270.  THE  PATEIAECH  AND  THE  POPE.      315 

he  either  kept  silence,  or  answered  in  the  words  of  Christ  before 
Caiaphas  and  Pilate.  In  the  tenth  and  last  session,  attended  by 
the  emperor  and  his  sons,  and  one  hundred  and  two  bishops, 
the  decrees  of  the  pope  against  Photius  and  in  favor  of  Ignatius 
were  confirmed,  and  the  anathemas  against  the  Monothelites  and 
Iconoclasts  renewed.  The  papal  delegates  signed  "with  reser- 
vation of  the  revision  of  the  pope." 

But  the  peace  was  artificial,  and  broken  up  again  immediately 
after  the  Synod  by  the  Bulgarian  question,  which  involved  the 
political  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  power  of  Constantinople. 
Ignatius  himself  was  unwilling  to  surrender  that  point,  and 
refused  to  obey  when  the  imperious  Pope  John  VIII.  com- 
manded, on  pain  of  suspension  and  excommunication,  that 
he  should  recall  all  the  Greek  bishops  and  priests  from  Bul- 
garia. But  death  freed  him  from  further  controversy  (OcL  23, 
877). 

Photius  was  restored  to  the  patriarchal  see  three  days  after 
the  death  of  Ignatius,  with  whom  he  had  been  reconciled.  He 
convened  a  council  in  November,  879,  which  lasted  till  March, 
880,  and  is  acknowledged  by  the  Orientals  as  the  Mghfk 
(Ecumenical  Council,1  but  denounced  by  the  Latins  as  the 
Pseudo-Synodus  Photiana.  It  was  three  times  as  large  as  the 
Council  of  Ignatius,  and  held  with  great  pomp  in  St.  Sophia 
under  the  presidency  of  Photius.  It  annulled  the  Council  of 
869  as  a  fraud ;  it  readopted  the  Nicene  Creed  with  an  anathema 
against  the  Filioque,  and  all  other  changes  by  addition  or 
omission,  and  it  closed  with  a  eulogy  on  the  unrivalled  virtues 
and  learning  of  Photius.  To  the  Greek  arts  was  afterwards 
added  a  (pretended)  letter  of  Pope  John  VIII,  to  Photius, 
declaring  the  FiMogue  to  be  an  addition  which  is  rejected  by 
the  church  of  Rome,  and  a  blasphemy  which  must  be  abolished 
calmly  and  by  degrees.2  The  papal  legates  assented  to  all,  and 

1  Strictly  speaking,  however,  the  Orthodox  Eastern  Church  counts  only 
seven  (Ecumenical  Councils. 
*  The  Roman  Catholic  historians  regard  this  letter  as  a  Greek  fraud    "left 


316  FOURTH  PERIOD,    A.D.  590-1049. 

so  deceived  their  master  by  false  accounts  of  the  surrender  of 
Bulgaria  that  he  thanked  the  emperor  for  the  service  he  had 
done  to  the  Church  by  this  synod. 

But  when  the  pope's  eyes  were  opened,  he  sent  the  bishop 
Marinus  to  Constantinople  to  declare  invalid  what  the  legates 
had  done  contrary  to  his  instructions.  For  this  Marinus  was 
shut  up  in  prison  for  thirty  days.  After  his  return  Pope  John 
VIII.  solemnly  pronounced  the  anathema  on  Photius,  who  had 
dared  to  deceive  and  degrade  the  holy  see,  and  had  added  new 
frauds  to  the  old.  Marinus  renewed  the  anathema  after  he  was 
elected  pope  (882).  Photius  denied  the  validity  of  his  election, 
and  developed  an  extraordinary  literary  activity. 

But  after  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Basilius  (886),  he  was 
again  deposed  by  Leo  VI.,  miscalled  the  Wise  or  the  Philoso- 
pher, to  make  room  for  his  youngest  brother  Stephen,  at  that 
time  only  sixteen  years  of  age.  Photius  spent  the  last  five 
years  of  his  life  in  a  cloister,  and  died  891.  For  learning, 
energy,  position,  and  influence,  he  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  in  the  history  of  Eastern  Christianity.  He  formulated  the 
doctrinal  basis  of  the  schism,  checked  the  papal  despotism,  and 
secured  the  independence  of  the  Greek  church.  He  announced 
in  an  Encyclical  of  866 :  "  God  be  praised  for  all  time  to  come ! 
The  Russians  have  received  a  bishop,  and  show  a  lively  zeal 
for  Christian  worship."  Eoman  writers  have  declared  this  to 
be  a  lie,  but  history  has  proved  it  to  be  an  anticipation  of  an 
important  fact,  the  conversion  of  a  new  nation  which  was  to 
become  the  chief  support  of  the  Eastern  church,  and  the  most 
formidable  rival  of  the  papacy. 

Greek  and  Eoman  historians  are  apt  to  trace  the  guilt  of  the 
schism  exclusively  to  one  party,  and  to  charge  the  other  with 
unholy  ambition  and  intrigue ;  but  we  must  acknowledge  on 

kmn  nicfo  glavtHn,"  says  Hefele  (IV.  482),  "dassje  an  Papst  seine  Stettung  90 
*>Jvr  vergessen,  habe,  vie  &  Johann  FZZ7.  gethan  haben  musste,  wenn  dieser  Brief 
ackt  «wre.  Xk  te  in  demsdben  <wch  keint  Spur  da  PtipaUwniutoein*,  vidmefo 
vst  dieSuptnvritatdes  PAo^/os*  ouoZriid^ 


271.  PEOGEESS  AND  COMPLETION  OF  THE  SCHISM.  317 

the  one  hand  the  righteous  zeal  of  Nicolas  for  the  cause  of  the 
injured  Ignatius,  and  on  the  other  the  many  virtues  of  Photius 
tried  in  misfortune,  as  well  as  his  brilliant  learning  in  theology, 
philology,  philosophy,  and  history ;  while  we  deplore  and  de- 
nounce the  schism  as  a  sin  and  disgrace  of  both  churches. 

NOTES. 

The  accounts  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  historians,  even  the  best,  are 
colored  by  sectarianism,  and  must  be  accepted  with  caution.  Cardinal 
Hergenrother  (JZirchengesch.  I.  684)  calls  the  Council  of  879  a  "PAo- 
tianische  Pseudo-Synode"  and  its  acts  uein  acht  byzantinisches  Machwerk 
ganz vom  Odste  des  verschmitzten,  Photius  durcJidrungen"  Bishop  Hefele, 
in  the  revised  edition  of  his  Conciliengeseh.  (IV.  464  sqq.),  treats  this 
Aftersynode,  as  he  calls  it,  no  better.  Both  follow  in  the  track  of  their 
old  teacher,  Dr.  Bellinger  who,  in  his  History  of  the  Church  (translated 
by  Dr.  Edward  Cox,  London  1841,  voL  III.  p.  100),  more  than  forty 
years  ago,  described  this  Synod  "in  all  its  parts  as  a  worthy  sister  of  the 
Council  of  Robbers  of  the  year  449;  with  this  difference,  that  in  the 
earlier  Synod  violence  and  tyranny,  in  the  later  artifice,  fraud,  and  false- 
hood were  employed  by  wicked  men  to  work  out  their  wicked  designs." 
But  when  in  1870  the  Vatican  Council  sanctioned  the  historical  false- 
hood of  papal  infallibility,  Dollinger,  once  the  ablest  advocate  of  Bo- 
xnanism  in  Germany,  protested  against  Borne  and  was  excommunicated. 
Wliatever  the  Latins  may  say  against  the  Synod  of  Photms,  the  Latin 
Synod  of  869  was  not  a  whit  better,  and  Borne  understood  the  arts  of 
intrigue  fully  as  well  as  Constantinople.  The  whole  controversy  be- 
tween the  Greek  and  the  Eoman  churches  is  one  of  the  most  humiliating 
chapters  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  and  both  must  humbly  confess 
their  share  of  sin  and  guilt  before  a  reconciliation  can  take  place. 

§  71.  Progress  and  Completion  of  the  Schism.     Cerufariu&. 

HBBGBNEdTHEB:   PHOTIUS,  vol.  TTLf  653-887;  comp.  his  Kircheng&ch. 
vol.  L  688  sq.;  690-694.    HEFELE:   Condlimgesch.  IV.  587;  765 
sqq. ;  771,  775  sqq.    GIESEUEB  :  IL  221  sqq. 
We  shall  briefly  sketch  the  progress  and  consolidation  of  the 

schism. 

The  Difference  about  Teh-agamy. 

The  fourth  marriage  of  the  emperor  Leo  the  Philosopher 
(886-912),  which  was  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  the  Greek 
church,  caused  a  great  schism  in  the  East  (905).1  The  Patriarch 

1  Leo  himself  had  forbidden  not  only  tetragamy,  but  even  trigamy.  His 
four  wives  were  Theophano,  Zoe  (his  former  mistress),  EuddEa,  and  Zoe 


318  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  IX  590-1049. 

Nicolas  Mysticns  solemnly  protested  and  was  deposed  (906),  but 
Pope  Sergius  IH.  (904r-911),  instead  of  siding  with  suffering 
virtue  as  Pope  Nicolas  had  done,  sanctioned  the  fourth  mar- 
riage (which  was  not  forbidden  in  the  West)  and  the  deposition 
of  the  conscientious  patriarch. 

Leo  on  his  death-bed  restored  the  deposed  patriarch  (912). 
A  Synod  of  Constantinople  in  920,  at  which  Pope  John  X.  was 
represented,  declared  a  fourth  marriage  illegal,  and  made  no 
concessions  to  Borne.  The  Emperor  Constantine,  Leo's  son, 
prohibited  a  fourth  marriage  by  an  edict;  thereby  casting  a 
tacit  imputation  on  his  own  birth.  The  Greek  church  regards 
marriage  as  a  sacrament,  and  a  necessary  means  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  race,  but  a  second  marriage  is  prohibited  to  the 
clergy,  a  third  marriage  is  tolerated  in  laymen  as  a  sort  of  legal 
concubinage,  and  a  fourth  is  condemned  as  a  sin  and  a  scandal. 
The  pope  acquiesced,  and  the  schism  slumbered  during  the  dark 
tenth  century.  The  venal  Pope  John  ~XTX.  (1024)  was  ready 
for  an  enormous  sum  to  renounce  all  the  claim  of  superiority 
over  the  Eastern  patriarchs,  but  was  forced  to  break  off  the 
negotiations  when  his  treasonable  plan  was  discovered. 

Gervdarius  and  Leo  IX. 

Michael  Cerularius  (or  Cserularius),1  who  was  patriarch  from 
1043  to  1059,  renewed  and  completed  the  schism.  Heretofore 
the  mutual  anathemas  were  hurled  only  against  the  contending 
heads  and  their  party;  now  the  churches  excommunicated  each 
other.  The  Emperor  Constantinus  Monachus  courted  the 
friendship  of  the  pope  for  political  reasons,  but  his  patriarch 
checkmated  him.  Cerularius,  in  connection  with  the  learned 
Bulgarian  metropolitan  Leo  of  Achrida,  addressed  in  1053  a 
letter  to  John,  bishop  of  Tram,  in  Apulia  (then  subject  to  the 
Eastern  role),  and  through  him  to  all  the  bishops  of  France 

Karbonopeyne,  who  in  905  bore  Mm  a  son,  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus  (or 
Porphyrogennetos,  d.  959).    See  Hergenrother,  Phot.  DDL  656  aq. 

1  KvpovUpto?,  probably  from  the  Latin  cenda  (njpbk>$),  ccriolanum,  a  cande- 
labrum Ibr  wax-tapers. 


g71.  PROGRESS  AND  COMPLETION  OF  THE  SCHISM.  319 

and  to  the  pope  himself,  charging  the  churches  of  the  West 
that,  foDowing  the  practice  of  the  Jews,  and  contrary  to  the 
usage  of  Christ,  they  employ  in  the  encharist  unleavened 
bread;  that  they  fast  on  Saturday  in  Lent;  that  they  eat 
blood  and  things  strangled  in  violation  of  the  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Jerusalem  (Acts,  eh.  15)  ;  and  that  during  the  fast 
they  do  not  sing  the  hallelujah.  He  invented  the  new  name 
Azymites  for  the  heresy  of  using  unleavened  bread  (azyma) 
instead  of  common  bread.1  Nothing  was  said  about  the  pro- 
cession of  the  Spirit  This  letter  is  only  extant  in  the  Latin 
translation  of  Cardinal  Humbert.2 

Pope  Leo  IX.  sent  three  legates  under  the  lead  of  the  im- 
perious Humbert  to  Constantinople,  with  counter-charges  to  the 
effect  that  Cerularius  arrogated  to  himself  the  title  of  "  oecu- 
menical "  patriarch;  that  he  wished  to  subject  the  patriarchs 
of  Alexandria  and  of  Antioch  ;  that  the  Greeks  rebaptized  the 
Latins  ;  that,  like  the  .Nicolaitans,  they  permitted  their  priests 
to  live  in  wedlock;3  that  they  neglected  to  baptize  iheir  chil- 
dren before  the  eighth  day  after  birth  ;  that,  like  the  Pneuma- 
tomachi  or  Theomachi,  they  cut  out  of  the  symbol  the  Proces- 


*  Azyma  is  from  aftyzof,  unleavened  (&W,  leaven)  ;  hence  fj  loprq  rov  dffyww 
(aprav),  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  (the  passover),  during  which  the  Jews  were 
to  eat  unleavened  bread.  The  Greeks  insist  that  our  Lord  in  instituting  the 
encharist  after  the  passover-meal  used  true,  nourishing  bread  (aproc  from  alpa), 
as  the  sign  of  the  new  dispensation  of  joy  and  gladness  ;  while  the  lifeless,  un- 
leavened bread  (frfypav)  belongs  to  the  Jewish  dispensation.  The  Latins 
argued  that  5/wof  means  unleavened  as  well  as  leavened  bread,  and  that  Christ 
during  the  feast  of  the  passover  could  not  get  any  other  but  unleavened  bread. 
They  called  the  Greeks  in  tamFermentaarei  in  opposition  toAzymitce.  See  Nice- 
tag  Stethatus  (a  ootemporary  of  Cerularius)  :  De  Fermentato  et  Asa/mis,  pnhl. 
in  Greek  by  Dimitracopulos,  lips.  1866  (Bip?uo&.  EKI&.  L  18-36),  and  in  Greek 
and  Latin  by  Hergenrother,  in  Monumenta  GTCKO,  etc.,  p.  139-154.  Comp. 
also  the  Dissertation  amcerning  Azymea  in  Nealefe  Eastern  Church,  Introd.  II. 
1051  sqq.  ;  J.  G.  Hermann,  Hist,  wncertationis  de  pome  asa/mo  et  femenfato  m 
coma  Dmtm,  laps.  1737;  and  Hergenrother,  Ptotiu*  HI.  739  sqq. 

'Baronius^LnnoLadann.  1053  no.  22;  and  Gieseler  II.  222  sq. 

5  "Sicut  Nicolaite  carnales  nuptias  concedunt  et  defend/ant  tacri  altari*  minit- 
tris.''  On  the  other  hand,  Photius  and  the  Greeks  traced  to  the  clerical  celibacy 
the  fiust  that  the  West  had  "so  many  children  who  knew  not  their  fathers.31 


320  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

sion  of  the  Spirit  from  the  Son.1  The  legates  were  lodged  in 
the  imperial  palace,  but  Cerularius  avoided  all  intercourse  with 
them.  Finally,  on  the  16th  of  July,  1054,  they  excommuni- 
cated the  patriarch  and  all  those  who  should  persistently  censure 
the  faith  of  the  church  of  Rome  or  its  mode  of  offering  the 
holy  sacrifice.  They  placed  the  writ  on  the  altar  of  the  church 
of  Hagia  Sophia  with  the  words :  "  Videat  Deus  etjudioet" 

Cerularius,  supported  by  his  clergy  and  the  people,  imme- 
diately answered  by  a  synodical  counter-anathema  on  the  papal 
legates,  and  accused  them  of  fraud.  In  a  letter  to  Peter,  the 
patriarch  of  Antioch  (who  at  first  acted  the  part  of  a  mediator), 
he  charged  Rome  with  other  scandals,  namely,  that  two  brothers 
were  allowed  to  espouse  two  sisters;  that  bishops  wore  rings 
and  engaged  in  warfare;  that  baptism  was  administered  by  a 
single  immersion ;  that  salt  was  put  in  the  mouth  of  the  bap- 
tized; that  the  images  and  relics  of  saints  were  not  honored; 
and  that  Gregory  the  Theologian,  Basil,  and  Chrysostom  were 
not  numbered  among  the  saints.  The  Filioque  was  also  men- 
tioned.2 

The  charge  of  the  martial  spirit  of  the  bishops  was  well 
founded  in  that  semi-barbarous  age.  Cerularius  was  all-power- 
ful for  several  years ;  he  dethroned  one  emperor  and  crowned 
another,  but  died  in  exile  (1059). 

The  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem  ad- 
hered to  the  see  of  Constantinople.  Thus  the  schism  between 
the  Christian  East  and  West  was  completed.  The  number  of 
episcopal  sees  at  that  time  was  nearly  equal  on  both  sides,  but 
in  the  course  of  years  the  Latin  church  far  outgrew  the  East. 

The  Latin  Empire  in  tiie  East.    1204-1261. 
During  the  Crusades  the  schism  was  deepened  by  the  brutal 
atrocities  of  the  French  and  Venetian  soldiers  in  the  pillage  of 
Constantinople  (1204),  the  establishment  of  a  Latin  empire, 

1  See  a  fall  resume*  of  Humbert's  arguments  in  Hergenrother,  TTT.  741-756, 
*  See  the  documents  in  GieselerIL  225  sqq. 


?  72.  FEUITLESS  ATTEMPTS  AT  REUNION.  321 

and  the  appointment  by  the  pope  of  Latin  bishops  in  Greek 
sees.1  Although  this  artificial  empire  lasted  only  half  a  century 
(1204-1261),  it  left  a  legacy  of  burning  hatred  in  the  memories 
of  horrible  desecrations  and  innumerable  insults  and  outrages, 
which  the  East  had  to  endure  from  the  Western  barbarians! 
Churches  and  monasteries  were  robbed  and  desecrated,  the 
Greek  service  mocked,  the  clergy  persecuted,  and  every  law  of 
decency  set  at  defiance.  In  Constantinople  "a  prostitute  was 
seated  on  the  throne  of  the  patriarch;  and  that  daughter  of 
Belial,  as  she  is  styled,  sung  and  danced  in  the  church  to 
ridicule  the  hymns  and  processions  of  the  Orientals."  Even 
Pope  Innocent  III.  accuses  the  pilgrims  that  they  spared  in 
their  lust  neither  age  nor  sex,  nor  religious  profession,  and  that 
they  committed  fornication,  adultery,  and  incest  in  open  day  (in 
ocdis  ommitm),  "  abandoning  matrons  and  virgins  dedicated  to 
Godtothelewdnessof  grooms."  And  yet  this  great  pope  in- 
sulted the  Eastern  church  by  the  establishment  of  a  Latin  hier- 
archy on  the  ruins  of  the  Byzantine  empire.2 

§  72.  JPruiUess  Attempts  at  Reunion. 
The  Greek  emperors,  hard  pressed  by  the  terrible  Turks,  who 

1  Cardinal  Hergenrother  (J&rchengeseh.  1. 903}  admits  that  it  was  largely  (he 
ought  to  say,  chiefly)  through  the  guilt  of  the  Latin  conquerors  (Ci  grossentheil* 
durch  Schvld  der  fateinischen  Eroberer")  that  "the  hatred  of  the  Greeks  at  the 
conquest  of  Constantinople,  1204,  assumed  gigantic  dimensions." 

9  See  Gibbon's  graphic  description  (in  ch.  LX.)  of  the  horrors  of  the  sack  of 
Constantinople,  gathered  from  the  concurrent  accounts  of  the  French  marshall 
Villehardouin  (who  does  not  betray  a  symptom  of  pity  or  remorse)  and  the 
Byzantine  senator  Nicetas  (one  of  the  sufferers).  On  the  barbarities  pre- 
viously committed  at  Thessalonica  by  the  Normans  in  1186,  see  Eustathius 
De  capla  Thessalonica  (ed.  Bonnes  1842,  quoted  by  Gieseler  II.  609) ;  on  the 
barbarities  in  the  island  of  Cyprus  after  its  delivery  by  Richard  to  Guy,  king 
of  Jerusalem,  in  1192,  see  the  anonymous  account  in  Allatius,  De  ecdes.  Occi- 
dent, et  orient,  perpet*  consents.  1.  II.  c.  XIII.  693  sq*  Leo  Allatius  was  a  Greek 
convert  to  the  Roman  church,  and  found  no  fault  with  these  cruelties  against 
the  church  of  his  fathers;  on  the  contrary  he  says :  "  Opus  era*,  ejfrcenes  pro- 
priasgue  fidei  rebeUes  et  verfatis  oppugnatores  non  exttio,  sed  ferro  et  igne  in 
saniorem  mentem  reducere.  Eceretici  prosertbendi  sunt,  extermnandi  sunt,  puniendi 
sunt  et  pertvnaces  ocddmdi,  cremandi.  Ita  leges  sandunt,  tia  ob&erwvti  antiqutia*, 
nee  alius  mos  est  recentioris  eceksiae  turn  Graeaz  turn  Latina.1' 


322  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.  IX  590-1049. 

threatened  to  overthrow  their  throne,  sought  from  time  to  time 
by  negotiations  with  the  pope  to  secure  the  powerful  aid  of  the 
West.  But  all  the  projects  of  reunion  split  on  the  rock  of  papal 
absolutism  and  Greek  obstinacy* 

Tfie  Gmncil  of  Lyons.    A.  D.  1274.1 

Michael  Palaeologus  (1260-1282),  who  expelled  the  Latins 
from  Constantinople    (July  25,   1261),    restored    the   Greek 
patriarchate,  but  entered  into  negotiations  with  Pope  Urban 
IV.  to  avert  the  danger  of  a  new  crusade  for  the  reconquesfe 
of  Constantinople.    A  general  council  (the  14th  of  the  Latins) 
was  held  at  Lyons  in  1273  and  1274  with  great  solemnity  and 
splendor  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  reunion.    Five  hundred 
Latin  bishops,  seventy  abbots,  and  about  a  thousand  other 
ecclesiastics  were   present,  together   with   ambassadors   from 
England,  France,  Germany,  and  other  countries.    Palaeologus 
sent  a  large  embassy,  but  only  three  were  saved  from  ship- 
wreck, Germanus,  ex-patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Theophanes, 
metropolitan  of  Nicsea,  and  the  chancellor  of  the  empire.    The 
pope  opened  the  Synod  (May  7, 1274)  by  the  celebration  of 
high  mass,  and  declared  the  threefold  object  of  the  Synod  to 
be :  help  for  Jerusalem,  union  with  the  Greeks,  and  reform  of 
the    church,     Bonaventura    preached   the  sermon.     Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  prince  of  schoolmen,  who  had  defended  the  Latin 
doctrine  of  the  double  procession,2  was  to  attend,  but  had  died 
on  the  journey  to  Lyons  (March  7,  1274),  in  his  49th  year. 
The  imperial  delegates  were  treated  with  marked  courtesy, 
abjured  the  schism,  submitted  to  the  pope  and  accepted  the 
distinctive  tenets  of  the  Eoman  church. 

But  the  Eastern  patriarchs  were  not  represented,  the  people 
of  Constantinople  abhorred  the  union  with  Rome,  and  the 
death  of  the  despotic  Michael  Palaeologus  (1282)  was  also  the 

1  See  a  Ml  accoont  of  it  in  the  sbdfi  volume  of  dele's  Con<£ienge*ckicfai 
p.  10a-I47. 
« la  his  book  Om*u  arms  Orcseonm. 


2  72.  FRUITLESS  ATTEMPTS  AT  REUNION.  323 

death  of  the  Latin  party,  and  the  formal  revocation  of  the  act 
of  submission  to  the  pope. 

The  Council  at  Ferrara — Florence.    A.  D.  1438-1439.1 
Another  attempt  at  reunion  was  made  by  John  VII.  Palseo- 
logus  in  the  Council  of  Ferrara,  which  was  convened  by  Pope 
Eugenius  IV.  in  opposition  to  the  reformatory  Council  of  Basle. 
It  was  afterwards  transferred  to  Florence  on  account  of  the 
plague.    It  was  attended  by  the  emperor,  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  and  twenty-one  Eastern  prelates,  among  them 
the  learned  Bessarion  of  Nicsea,  Mark  of  Ephesus,  Dionysius 
of  Sardis,  Isidor  of  Kieff.    The  chief  points  of  controversy 
were  discussed :  the  procession  of  the  Spirit,  purgatory,  the  use 
of  unleavened  bread,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.2    Bes- 
sarion became  a  convert  to  the  Western  doctrine,  and  was 
rewarded  by  a  cardinal's  hat    He  was  twice  near  being  elected 
pope  (d.  1472).    The  decree  of  the  council,  published  July  6, 
1439,  embodies  his  views,  and  was  a  complete  surrender  to  the 
pope  with  scarcely  a  saving  clause  for  the  canonical  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  Eastern  patriarchs.    The  Greek  formula  on 
the  procession,  ex  Pahre  per  IfiLmm,  was  declared  to  be  identical 
with  the  Latin  Filioqm;  the  pope  was  acknowledged  not  only 
as  the  successor  of  Peter  and  Vicar  of  Christ,  but  also  as  u  the 
head  of  the  whole  church  and  father  and  teacher  of  all  Chris- 
tians/' but  with  variations  in  the  Greek  texts.3    The  document 
of  reunion  was  signed  by  the  pope,  the  emperor,  many  arch- 
bishops and  bishops,  the  representatives  of  all  the  Eastern 

1  See  Cecconi  (B.  C.),  Stodi  storiri  sd  OmcUio  di  ffir&w  (Florence  1869); 
Hefele  (B.  C.),  OfmcXieng^  voL  YIL  Pt.  H.  (1874),  p.  659-761 ;  B.  Popoft 
(Gr.),  Ststory  of  the  Council  of  Florence,  translated  from  &e  Sussum,  ed.  by  J. 
M.  Neale  (Land.  1861);  Frommann  (Prot.),  .Xr&  Betoagc  mr  Gesch.  fa 
florentin.  Eirch&rvGcrdnigung  (Halle,  1872). 

2  On  the  subject  of  purgatory  the  Greeks  disagreed  among  themselves.   The 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation  was  conceded,  and  therefore  not  brought  under 
discussion. 

*  Hefele  (J. «.  p*  741-761)  gives  the  Latin  and  Greek  texts  with  a  critical 
discussion.    Frommann  and  Dollinger  charge  the  decree  with  falsification. 


324  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

patriarchs  except  that  of  Constantinople,  who  had  previously 
died  at  Florence,  but  had  left  as  his  last  sentence  a  disputed 
submission  to  the  catholic  and  apostolic  church  of  old  Eome. 
For  the  'triumph  of  his  cause  the  pope  could  easily  promise 
material  aid  to  his  Eastern  ally,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
deputation,  to  support  three  hundred  soldiers  for  the  protection 
of  Constantinople,  and  to  send,  if  necessary,  an  army  and  navy 
for  the  defense  of  the  emperor  against  his  enemies. 

But  when  the  humiliating  terms  of  the  reunion  were  divulged, 
the  East  and  Russia  rose  in  rebellion  against  the  Latinizers  as 
traitors  to  the  orthodox  faith  ;  the  compliant  patriarchs  openly 
recanted,  and  the  new  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Mctrophanes, 
now  called  in  derision  Metrophonus  or  Matricide,  was  forced  to 
resign. 

After  the  Fall  of  Gonstantinopk. 

The  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Mohammedan  Turks 
(1453)  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Byzantine  empire  put  an  end 
to  ail  political  schemes  of  reunion,  but  opened  the  way  for  papal 
propagandism  in  the  East.    The  division  of  the  church  facili- 
tated that  catastrophe  which  delivered  the  fairest  lands  to  the 
blasting  influence  of  IsMm,  and  keeps  it  in  power  to  this  day, 
although  it  is  slowly  waning.    The  Turk  has  no  objection  to 
fights  among  the  despised  Christians,  provided  they  only  injure 
themselves  and  do  not  touch  the  Koran.    He  is  tolerant  from 
intolerance.    The  Greeks  hate  the  pope  and  the  Filwgue  as 
much  as  they  hate  the  false  prophet  of  Mecca ;  while  the  pope 
loves  his  own  power  more  than  the  common  cause  of  Christianity, 
and  would  rather  see  the  Sultan  rule  in  the  city  of  Constantine 
than  a  rival  patriarch  or  the  Czar  of  schismatic  Russia. 

During  the  nineteenth  century  the  schism  has  been  intensified 
by  the  creation  of  two  new  dogmas,— the  immactilate  conception 
of  Mary  (1854)  and  the  infallibility  of  the  pope  (1870).  When 
Pius  IX.  invited  the  Eastern  patriarchs  to  attend  the  Vatican 
Council,  they  indignantly  refused,  and  renewed  their  old  pro- 


g  72.  FRUITLESS  ATTEMPTS  AT  REUNION.  325 

test  against  the  antichristian  usurpation  of  the  papacy  and  the 
heretical  Filioque.  They  could  not  submit  to  the  Vatican 
decrees  without  stultifying  their  whole  history  and  committing 
moral  suicide.  Papal  absolutism1  and  Eastern  stagnation  are 
insuperable  barriers  to  the  reunion  of  the  divided  churches, 
which  can  only  be  brought  about  by  great  events  and  by  the 
wonder-working  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

1  Or,  as  the  modern  Greeks  call  it,  the  papolatria  of  the  Latins. 


CHAPTER  VL 

MOHAIRS    A2STD  RELIGION. 

§  73.  Literature. 

L  The  chief  and  almost  only  sources  for  this  chapter  are  the  acts  of 
Synods,  the  lives  of  saints  and  missionaries,  and  the  chronicles  of 
monasteries.  The  Ada  Sanctorum  mix  facts  and  legends  in  inextri- 
cable concision.  The  most  important  are  the  biographies  of  the 
Irish,  Scotch,  and  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries,  and  the  letters  of 
Boniface.  For  the  history  of  France  during  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries  we  have  the  Mstoria  Francorum  by  GREGORY  OF  TOURS, 
the  Herodotus  of  France  (d.  594),  first  printed  in  Paris,  1511,  better 
by  Euinart,  1699;  best  by  Giesebrecht  (in  German),  Berlin  1851, 
-9th  ed.  1873,  2  vols. ;  and  Gregorii  IRstorice  Epitomata  by  his  con- 
tinuator,  FREDEGAR,  a  clergyman  of  Burgundy  (d.  about  660),  ed. 
by  Euinart,  Paris  1699,  and  by  Abel  (in  German),  Berlin  1849.  For 
the  age  of  Charlemagne  we  have  the  Capitularies  of  the  emperor, 
and  the  historical  works  of  EPSTHARP  or  EGICTARD  (d.  840).  See 
Ouvres  competes  d?  EGINABD,  rtuniespour  fa  premiere  fois  et  traduites 
eafran$ai8,  par  A.  Teulet,  Paris  1840-'43,  2  vols.  For  an  estimate 
of  these  and  other  writers  of  our  period  comp.  part  of  the  first,  and 
the  second  vol.  of  AD.  EBERT'S^%»».  Gesch.  der  Lit.  des  Mtttelalters 
im  Abendfande,  Leipz.  1874  and  1880. 

IL  HBPELE  :  Cbnoiliengesch.  vols.  IIL  and  IV.  (from  A.  D.  560-1073), 
revised  ed.  1877  and  1879. 

KEANDER:  DenkwurdigTceiten  aus  der  Geschichte  des  cJiristL  Lebens. 
3d  ed.  Hamburg,  1845,  '46,  2  vols. 

AUG.  THIERRY  :  Recits  des  temps  merovingiens.  Paris  1855  (based  on 
Gregory  of  Tours)* 

LOEBELL:  Gregorvon  Tours  wnd  seine  Zett.  Leipz.  1839,  second  ed. 
1868. 

MOSTOD:  JEfades  critiques  sur  lea  sources  de  VUstoire  merovingienne. 
Paris  1872. 

LECKY:  ERstary  of  European  Morals  from  Augustus  to  Charlemagne, 
fifth  ed.  Lend.  1882,  2  vols.  (part  of  the  second  vol.). 

BRACE:  Gesta  Ghristi,  N.  York,  third  ed.  1883, p.  107 sqq. 

CJomp.  GTJIZOT  (Protest,  d.  1874) :  Mstoire  generate  de  la  cimli&atum 
326 


274.  GENERAL  CHAEACTER  OP  MEDIEVAL  MOBALS.  327 

en  Europe  et  en  France  depute  la  chute  de  V empire  romainjusqu'  a  la 
revolution  frangaise,  Paris  1830;  seventh  ed.  1860,  5  vols*  (one  vol. 
on  Europe  in  general). 

BALMEZ,  (a  Spanish  philosopher  and  apologist  of  the  Eoman  church,  d. 
1848) :  El  Protestantism)  comparado  con  el  Catolieismo  en  sus  relaciones 
con  la  dvttisacwn  europea.  Barcelona,  1842-44,  4  vols.  The  same 
in  French,  German,  and  English  translations.  A  Eoman  Catholic 
counterpart  to  Guizot. 

§  74.  General  Character  of  Hediawal  Morals. 

THE  middle  age  of  Western  Christendom  resembles  the  period 
of  the  Judges  in  the  history  of  Israel  when  "  the  highways  were 
unoccupied,  and  the  travelers  walked  through  by-ways/5  and 
when  "  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes."1 
It  was  a  time  of  civil  and  political  commotions  and  upheavings, 
of  domestic  wars  and  foreign  invasions.  Society  was  in  a 
chaotic  state  and  bordering  on  the  brink  of  anarchy.  Might 
was  right.  It  was  the  golden  age  of  border-ruffians,  filibusters, 
pirates  and  bold  adventurers,  but  also  of  gallant  knights, 
genuine  lieroes  and  judges,  like  Gideon,  Jephthah,  Samson,  and 
Samuel  of  old.  It  presents,  in  striking  contrasts,  Christian 
virtues  and  heathen  vices,  ascetic  self-denial  and  gross  sensuality. 
Nor  were  there  wanting  idyllic  episodes  of  domestic  virtue  and 
happiness  which  call  to  mind  the  charming  story  of  Ruth  from 
the  period  of  the  Judges. 

Upon  the  whole  the  people  were  more  religious  than  moral. 
Piety  was  often  made  a  substitute  or  atonement  for  virtue. 
Belief  in  the  supernatural  and  miraculous  was  nnhfexsal; 
scepticism  and  unbelief  were  almost  unknown.  Men  feared 
purgatory  and  hell,  and  made  great  sacrifices  to  gain  heaven  by 
founding  churches,  convents,  and  charitable  institutions.  And 
yet  there  was  a  frightful  amount  of  immorality  among  the 
rulers  and  the  people.  In  the  East  the  church  had  to  contend 
with  the  vices  of  an  effete  civilization  and  a  corrupt  court.  In 
Italy,  France  and  Spain  the  old  Boman  vices  continued  and 

*  Camp.  Judges  5:  6;  17:  6. 


328  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

were  even  invigorated  by  the  infusion  of  fresh  and  barbaric 
blood.  The  history  of  the  Merovingian  rulers,  as  we  learn  from 
Bishop  Gregory  of  Tours,  is  a  tragedy  of  murder,  adultery,  and 
incest,  and  ends  in  destruction.1 

The  church  was  unfavorably  affected  by  the  state  of  sur- 
rounding society,  and  often  drawn  into  the  current  of  prevailing 
immorality.  Yet,  upon  the  whole,  she  was  a  powerful  barrier 
against  vice,  and  the  chief,  if  not  the  only  promoter  of  educa- 
tion, virtue  and  piety  in  the  dark  ages.  From  barbaric  and 
semi-barbaric  material  she  had  to  build  up  the  temple  of  a 
Christian  civilization.  She  taught  the  new  converts  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments — 
the  best  popular  summaries  of  faith,  piety,  and  duty.  She 
taught  them  also  the  occupations  of  peaceful  life.  She  restrained 
vice  and  encouraged  virtue.  The  synodical  legislation  was 
nearly  always  in  the  right  direction.  Great  stress  was  laid  on 
prayer  and  fasting,  on  acts  of  hospitality,  charity,  and  benevo- 
lence, and  on  pilgrimages  to  sacred  places.  The  regards  of 
heaven  entered  largely  as  an  inducement  for  leading  a  virtuous 
and  holy  life;  but  it  is  far  better  that  people  should  be  good 
from  fear  of  hell  and  love  of  heaven,  than  ruin  themselves  by 
immorality  and  vice. 

A  vast  amount  of  private  virtue  and  piety  is  never  recorded 
on  the  pages  of  history,  and  is  spent  in  modest  retirement.  So 
the  wild  flowers  in  the  woods  and  on  the  mountains  bloom 
and  fade  away  unseen  by  human  eyes.  Every  now  and  then 
incidental  allusion  is  made  to  unknown  saints.  Pope  Gre- 
gory mentions  a  certain  Servulus  in  Rome  who  was  a  poor 
cripple  from  childhood,  but  found  rich  comfort  and  peace  in 
the  Bible,  although  he  could  not  read  himself,  and  had  to  ask 
pious  friends  to  read  it  to  him  while  he  was  lying  on  his  couch ; 

1  *  It  would  be  difficult,"  says  Gibbon  of  tbis  period,  "  to  find  anywhere  more 
vice  or  less  virtue."  The  judgments  of  Hallam,  Milman,  and  Lecky  are  to 
the  same  effect  Compare  also  the  description  of  Montalembert,  quoted  above, 
p.  82  sq. 


{74.  GENEEAL  CHARACTER  OF  MEDIAEVAL  MORALS.  329 

he  never  complained,  but  was  full  of  gratitude  and  praise; 
when  death  drew  near  he  requested  his  friends  to  sing  psalms 
with  him ;  then  stopped  suddenly  and  expired  with  the  words : 
"  Peace,  hear  ye  not  the  praises  of  God  sounding  from  heaven  ?  " 
This  man's  life  of  patient  suffering  was  not  in  vain,  but  a 
benediction  to  many  who  came  in  contact  with  it  "  Those  also 
serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

The  moral  condition  of  the  middle  age  varied  considerably. 
The  migration  of  nations  was  most  unfavorable  to  the  peaceful 
work  of  the  church.  Then  came  the  bright  reign  of  Charle- 
magne with  his  noble  efforts  for  education  and  religion,  but  it 
was  soon  followed,  under  his  weak  successors,  by  another  period 
of  darkness  which  grew  worse  and  worse  till  a  moral  reforma- 
tion began  in  the  convent  of  Cluny,  and  reached  the  papal  chair 
under  the  lead  of  Hildebrand. 

Yet  if  we  judge  by  the  number  of  saints  in  the  Eoman 
Calendar,  the  seventh  century,  which  is  among  the.darkest,  was 
more  pious  than  any  of  the  preceding  and  succeeding  centuries, 
except  the  third  and  fourth  (which  are  enriched  by  the  martyrs). 

KOTES. 

The  following  is  the  table  of  saints  in  the  Eoman  Calendar  (accord- 
ing to  Alban  Butler's  Lives  of  the  Saints) :  SADSTTS. 

First  Century 53 

Second  Century 43 

Third  Century..... 139 

Fourth  Century 213 

Fifth  Century 130 

Sixth  Century 123 

Seventh  Century 174 

Eighth  Century :    78 

Ninth  Century 49 

Tenth  Century 28 

Eleventh  Century 45 

Twelfth  Century 54 

Thirteenth  Century 49 

Fourteenth  Century 27 

Fifteenth  Century 17 


330  FOUBTH  PERIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

SAI3STTS. 

Sixteenth  Century 24 

Seventeenth  Century 15 

Eighteenth  Century 20 

In  the  first  centuries  the  numerous  but  nameless  martyrs  of  the  Nero- 
nian  and  other  persecutions  are  not  separately  counted.  The  Holy 
Innocents,  the  Seven  Sleepers  (in  the  third  century),  the  Forty  Martyrs 
of  Sebaste  (fourth  century,)  and  other  groups  of  martyrs  are  counted 
only  one  each.  Lecky  asserts  too  confidently  that  the  seventh  century 
was  the  most  prolific  in  saints,  and  yet  the  most  immoral.  It  is  strange 
that  the  number  of  saints  should  have  declined  from  the  seventh  century, 
while  the  church  increased,  and  that  the  eighteenth  century  of  infidelity 
should  have  produced  five  more  saints  than  the  seventeenth  century.  It 
would  therefore  be  very  unsafe  to  make  this  table  the  basis  for  general 
estimates. 

§  75.  Clerical  Morals. 

1.  SOCIAL  PosmoK.  The  clergy  stood,  during  the  middle 
ages,  at  the  head  of  society,  and  shared  with  kings  and  nobles 
the  rule  of  the  people.  They  had  the  guardianship  of  the 
souls  and  consciences  of  men,  and  handled  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  They  possessed  nearly  all  the  learning, 
but  it  was  generally  very  limited,  and  confined  to  a  little  Latin 
without  any  Greek.  Some  priests  descended  from  noble  and  even 
royal  blood,  others  from  slaves  who  belonged  to  monasteries. 
They  enjoyed  many  immunities  from  public  burdens,  as  military 
luiy  and  taxation.  Charlemagne  and  his  successors  granted  to 
them  all  the  privileges  which  the  Eastern  emperors  from  the 
time  of  Constantine  had  bestowed  upon  them.  They  could  not 
be  sued  before  a  civil  court,  and  had  their  own  episcopal  tri- 
bunals. No  lay  judge  could  apprehend  or  punish  an  ecclesiastic 
without  the  permission  of  his  bishop. 

They  were  supported  by  the  income  from  landed  estates, 
cathedral  funds,  and  the  annual  tithes  which  were  enacted  after 
the  precedent  of  the  Mosaic  law.  Pepin,  by  a  decree  of  764, 
imposed  the  payment  of  tithes  upon  all  the  royal  possessions. 
Charlemagne  extended  it  to  all  lands,  and  made  the  obligation 
general  by  a  capitulary  in  779.  The  tithes  were  regarded  as 


575.  CLEEICAL  MOEALS.  331 

the  minimum  contribution  for  the  maintenance  of  religion  and 
the  support  of  the  poor.  They  were  generally  paid  to  the 
bishop,  as  the  administrator  of  all  ecclesiastical  goods.  Many 
nobles  had  their  own  domestic  chaplains  who  depended  on  their 
lords,  and  were  often  employed  in  degrading  offices,  as  waiting 
at  table  and  attending  to  horses  and  hounds. 

2.  MOBALS.  The  priests  were  expected  to  excel  in  virtue 
as  well  as  in  education,  and  to  commend  their  profession  by  an 
exemplary  life.  Upon  the  whole  they  were  superior  to  their 
flock,  but  not  unfrequently  they  disgraced  their  profession  by 
scandalous  immorality.  According  to  ancient  discipline  every 
priest  at  his  ordination  was  connected  with  a  particular  church, 
except  missionaries  to  heathen  lands.  But  many  priests  defied 
the  laws,  and  led  an  irregular  wandering  life  as  clerical  tramps. 
They  were  forbidden  to  wear  the  sword,  but  many  a  bishop  lost 
his  life  on  the  battle  field,  and  even  some  popes  engaged  in 
warfare.  Drunkenness  and  licentiousness  were  common  vices. 
Gregory  of  Tours  mentions  a  bishop  named  Cautinus  who, 
when  intoxicated,  had  to  be  carried  by  four  men  from  the  table. 
Boniface  gives  a  very  unfavorable  but  partizan  account  of  the 
French  and  German  clergymen  who  acted  independently  of 
Rome.  The  acts  of  Synods  are  full  of  censures  and  punish- 
ments of  clerical  sins  and  vices.  They  legislated  against  forni- 
cation, intemperance,  avarice,  the  habits  of  hunting,  of  visiting 
horse-races  and  theatres,  and  enjoined  even  corporal  punish- 
ments.1 

Clerical  immorality  reached  the  lowest  depth  in  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  when  Rome  was  a  sink  of  iniquity,  and  the 
popes  themselves  set  the  worst  example.  But  a  new  reform 
began  with  the  Hildebrandian  popes. 

1  It  seems  incredible  that  there  should  have  been  an  occasion  for  legislation 
against  clergymen  keeping  houses  of  prostitution ;  and  yet  the  Qninisexta  ot 
Trullan  Synod  of  692  enacted  the  canon:  "He  who  keeps  a  brothel,  if  a 
clergyman,  shall  be  deposed  and  excommunicated  j  if  a  layman,  ezcommnni* 
cated."  Hefele  IIL  34L 


332  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049 

3.  CANONICAL  LIFE.    Chrodegang,  bishop  of  Metz  (A.  D. 
760),  reformed  the  clergy  by  introducing,  or  reviving,  after  the 
example  of  St.  Augustin,  the  "canonical"  or  semi-monastic 
life.    The  bishop  and  lower  clergymen  lived  in  the  same  house, 
near  the  cathedral,  ate  at  the  same  table,  prayed  and  studied 
together,  like  a  family  of  monks,  only  differing  from  them  in 
dress  and  the  right  of  holding  property  or  receiving  fees  for 
official  services.    Such  an  establishment  was  called  Chapter? 
and  the  members  of  it  were  called  Canons? 

The  example  was  imitated  in  other  places.  Charlemagne 
made  the  canonical  life  obligatory  on  all  bishops  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. Many  chapters  were  liberally  endowed.  But  during  the 
civil  commotions  of  the  Carolingians  the  canonical  life  degener- 
ated or  was  broken  up. 

4.  CELIBACY.    In  the  East  the  lower  clergy  were  always 
allowed  to  marry,  and  only  a  second  marriage  is  forbidden.    In 
the  West  celibacy  was  the  prescribed  rule,  but  most  clergymen 
lived  either  with  lawful  wives  or  with  concubines.    In  Milan 
all  the  priests  and  deacons  were  married  in  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century,  but  to  the  disgust  of  the  severe  moralists  of 
the  time.3    Hadrian  II.  was  married  before  he  became  pope, 
and  had  a  daughter,  who  was    murdered   by  her  husband, 
together  with  the  pope's  wife,  Stephania  (868).*     The  wicked 
pope  Benedict  IX.  sued  for  the  daughter  of  his  cousin,  who 
consented  on  condition  that  he  resign  the  papacy  (1033).5    The 
Hildebrandian  popes,  Leo  IX.  and  Nicolas  II.,  made  attempts 

1  Capitulum,  from  the  chapter  of  the  Bible  or  of  the  monastic  rales  which 
were  read  in  common  every  day.    The  name  was  applied  both  to  the  clerical 
brotherhood  and  to  their  habitation  (chapter-house).    The  plural,  Capitula  or 
OapiMaria  designates  codes  of  law  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  digested  under  chap- 
ters.   See  Martene,  De  Antiqu.  Ecd.  Ritibus,  1.  IV.  c.  VI.  \  4,  and  Haddan  in 
Smith  and  Cheetham,  I.  347. 

2  Oanomdj  either  because  they  were  bound  by  canons,  or  enrolled  on  the 
lists  of  ecclesiastical  officers.    They  occupied  an  intermediate  position  between 
the  secular  clergy  and  the  monks.    See  Bu  Cange,  and  Smith  and  Cheetham, 
sub  Canonid. 


§76.  DOMESTIC  LIFE.  *     333 

to  enforce  clerical  celibacy  all  over  the  West.  They  identified 
the  interests  of  clerical  morality  and  influence  with  clerical 
celibacy,  and  endeavored  to  destroy  natural  immorality  by  en- 
forcing unnatural  morality.  How  far  Gregory  YIL  succeeded 
in  this  part  of  his  reform,  will  be  seen  in  the  next  period. 

§  76.  DomestiG  Life. 

The  purity  and  happiness  of  home-life  depend  on  the  position 
of  woman,  who  is  the  beating  heart  of  the  household.  Female 
degradation  was  one  of  the  weakest  spots  in  the  old  Greek  and 
Roman  civilization.  The  church,  in  counteracting  the  prevailing 
evil,  ran  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  ascetic  excess  as  a  radical 
cure.  Instead  of  concentrating  her  strength  on  the  purification 
and  elevation  of  the  family,  she  recommended  lonely  celibacy 
as  a  higher  degree  of  holiness  and  a  safer  way  to  heaven. 

Among  the  "Western  and  Northern  barbarians  she  found  a 
more  favorable  soil  for  the  cultivation  of  Christian  family  life. 
The  contrast  which  the  heathen  historian  Tacitus  and  the 
Christian  monk  Salvian  draw  between  the  chastity  of  the 
Teutonic  barbarians  and  the  licentiousness  of  the  Latin  races 
is  overdrawn  for  effect,  but  not  without  foundation.  The  Ger- 
man and  Scandinavian  tribes  had  an  instinctive  reverence  for 
the  female  sex,  as  being  inspired  by  a  divinity,  possessed  of  the 
prophetic  gift,  and  endowed  with  secret  charms.  Their  women 
shared  the  labors  and  dangers  of  men,  emboldened  them  in  their 
fierce  battles,  and  would  rather  commit  suicide  than  submit  to 
dishonor.  Yet  the  wife  was  entirely  in  the  power  of  her  hus- 
band, and  could  be  bought,  sold,  beaten,  and  killed. 

The  Christian  religion  preserved  and  strengthened  the  noble 
traits,  and  developed  them  into  the  virtues  of  chivalry ;  while 
it  diminished  or  abolished  evil  customs  and  practices.  The 
Synods  often  deal  with  marriage  and  divorce.  Polygamy, 
concubinage,  secret  marriages,  marriages  with  near  relatives, 
mixed  marriages  with  heathens  or  Jews  or  heretics  were  fbr- 
bidden;  the  marriage  tie  was  declared  sacred  and  indissoluble 


334  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.D,  590-1049. 

(except  by  adultery);  sexual  intemperance  restrained  and 
forbidden  on  Sundays  and  during  Lent;  the  personal  inde- 
pendence of  woman  and  her  rights  of  property  were  advanced. 
The  Virgin  Mary  was  constantly  held  up  to  the  imagination  as 
the  incarnation  of  female  purity  and  devotion.  Not  unfre- 
quently,  however,  marriages  were  dissolved  by  mutual  consent 
from  mistaken  ascetic  piety.  When  a  married  layman  entered 
the  priesthood  or  a  convent,  he  usually  forsook  his  wife.  In  a 
Roman  Synod  of  827  such  separation  was  made  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  bishop.  A  Synod  of  Bouen,  1072,  forbade 
husbands  whose  wives  had  taken  the  veil,  to  marry  another. 
Wives  whose  husbands  had  disappeared  were  forbidden  by  the 
same  Synod  to  marry  until  the  fact  of  death  was  made  certain.1 
Upon  the  whole,  the  synodieal  legislation  on  the  subject  of 
marriage  was  wise,  timely,  restraining,  purifying,  and  ennobling 
in  its  eflect.  The  purest  and  brightest  chapter  in  the  history 
of  Pope  Nicolas  I.  is  his  protection  of  injured  innocence  in 
the  person  of  the  divorced  wife  of  Xing  Lothair  of  Lorraine.2 


See  the  Lit.  in  vol.  L  2  48  (p.  4M),  and  in  vol.  H  1 97  (p.  347).  Oomp. 
also  BAliMES  (R.  C.) :  Protestantism  and  Catholidsm  compared  in  their 
effects  on  the  Civilization  of  Europe.  Tsansl.  from  the  Spanish. 
Baltimore  1851,  Ohs.  xv.-xix.  BSACE  :  Gesta  Chrisfi,  Ch.  xxi. 

History  is  a  slow  but  steady  progress  of  emancipation  from 
the  chains  which  sin  has  forged.  The  institution  of  slavery 
wa?  universal  in  Europe  during  the  middle  ages  among  bar- 
barians as  well  as  among  civilized  nations.  It  was  kept  up  by 
natural  increase,  by  war,  and  by  the  slave-trade  which  was 
carried  on  in  Europe  more  or  less  till  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
in  America  till  the  eighteenth.  Not  a  few  freemen  sold  them- 
selves into  slavery  for  debt,  or  from  poverty.  The  slaves  were 
completely  under  the  power  of  their  masters,  and  had  no  claim 

1  For  all  these  details  see  the  scattered  notices  in  vols.  ILL  and  IV.  of 
Hefele. 
*  See  \  61,  p.  275  B* 


177.  SLAVEEY.  335 

beyond  the  satisfaction  of  their  physical  wants.  They  conld 
not  bear  witness  in  courts  of  justice.  They  could  be  bought 
and  sold  with  their  children  like  other  property.  The  marriage 
tie  was  disregarded,  and  marriages  between  freemen  and  slaves 
were  null  and  void.  In  the  course  of  time  slavery  was  moder- 
ated into  serfdom,  which  was  attached  to  the  soil.  Small 
farmers  often  preferred  that  condition  to  freedom,  as  it  secured 
them  the  protection  of  a  powerful  nobleman  against  robbers  and 
invaders.  The  condition  of  the  serfs,  however,  during  the 
middle  ages  was  little  better  than  that  of  slaves,  and  gave  rise 
to  occasional  outbursts  in  the  Peasant  Wars,  which  occurred 
mostly  in  connection  with  the  free  preaching  of  the  Gospel  (as 
by  Wiclif  and  the  Lollards  in  England,  and  by  Luther  in 
Germany),  but  which  were  suppressed  by  force,  and  in  their 
immediate  effects  increased  the  burdens  of  the  dependent  classes. 
The  same  struggle  between  capital  and  labor  is  still  going  on  in 
different  forms. 

The  mediaeval  church  inherited  the  patristic  views  of  slavery. 
She  regarded  it  as  a  necessary  evil,  as  a  legal  right  based  on 
moral  wrong,  as  a  consequence  of  sin  and  a  just  punishment  for 
it.  She  put  it  in  the  same  category  with  war,  violence,  pesti- 
lence, famine,  and  other  evils.  St.  Augustin,  the  greatest 
theological  authority  of  the  Latin  church,  treats  slavery  as  a 
disturbance  of  the  normal  condition  and  relation.  God  did 
not,  he  says,  establish  the  dominion  of  man  over  man,  but  only 
over  the  brute.  He  derives  the  word  servus,  as  usual,  from 
seroare  (to  save  the  life  of  captives  of  war  doomed  to  death), 
but  cannot  find  it  in  the  Bible  till  the  time  of  the  righteous 
Noah,  who  gave  it  as  a  punishment  to  his  guilty  son  Ham ; 
whence  it  follows  that  the  word  came  "from  sin,  not  from 
nature."  He  also  holds  that  the  institution  will  finally  be 
abolished  when  all  iniquity  shall  disappear,  and  God  shall  be 
all  in  all.1 

1  De  Qwto.  Dei,  L  XELc.15.    "Nomen  [aerww]  cudpa  meruit,  nan  naXwa. . . 
Prima  wrmtutfo  causa  peccatum  est,  ut  homo  homni  conditwnis  vincuU)  subderetor. 


336  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

The  church  exerted  her  great  moral  power  not  so  much 
towards  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  the  amelioration  and  re- 
moval of  the  evils  connected  with  it  Many  provincial  Synods 
dealt  with  the  subject,  at  least  incidentally.  The  legal  right  of 
holding  slaves  was  never  called  in  question,  and  slaveholders 
were  in  good  and  regular  standing.  Even  convents  held  slaves, 
though  in  glaring  inconsistency  with  their  professed  principle 
of  equality  and  brotherhood.  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  one  of 
the  most  humane  of  the  popes,  presented  bondservants  from  his 
own  estates  to  convents,  and  exerted  all  his  influence  to  recover 
a  fugitive  slave  of  his  brother.1  A  reform  Synod  of  Pavia, 
over  which  Pope  Benedict  VIII.,  one  of  the  forerunners  of 
Hildebrand,  presided  (A.  D.  1018),  enacted  that  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  clergymen,  whether  from  free-women  or  slaves,  whether 
from  legal  wives  or  concubines,  are  the  property  of  the  church, 
and  should  never  be  emancipated.2  No  pope  has  ever  declared 
slavery  incompatible  with  Christianity.  The  church  was 
strongly  conservative,  and  never  encouraged  a  revolutionary  or 
radical  movement  looking  towards  universal  emancipation. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Christian  spirit  worked  silently, 
steadily  and  irresistibly  in  the  direction  of  emancipation. 


nonfuit  nisi  Deo  judicante,  a/pud  quern,  non  est  iniquitas"  .  .  .  He  thinks  it 
will  continue  with  the  duties  prescribed  by  the  apostles,  donee  transeat  iniquitax, 
^ewzei^rowim&priTi^  tmnia  in  omnibus'9 

Chrysostom  taught  substantially  the  same  views,  and  derived  from  the  sin  of 
Adam  a  threefold  servitude  and  a  threefold  tyranny,  that  of  the  husband  over 
the  wife,  the  master  over  the  slave,  and  the  state  over  the  subjects.  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  greatest  of  the  schoolmen,  "did  not  see  in  slavery  either  differ- 
ence of  race  or  imaginary  inferiority  or  means  of  government,  hut  only  a 
scourge  inflicted  on  humanity  by  the  sing  of  the  first  man"  (Balmes,  p.  112). 
But  none  of  these  great  men  seems  to  have  had  an  idea  that  slavery  would  ever 
disappear  from  the  earth  except  with  sin  itself,  Cessante  causa,  cessat  efectus. 
See  voL  HI.  115-121. 

1  Epist.  X.  66;  IX.  102.  See  these  and  other  passages  in  Overbeck,  Vet- 
hdltniss  der  alten  Exrcke  mr  Skfawsrd,  in  his  "Studien  zur  Gesch.  der  alten 
Kirche"  (1875)  p.  211  sq.  Overbeck,  however,  dwells  too  much  on  the  pro- 
elavery  sentiments  of  the  fathers,  and  underrates  the  merits  of  the  church  for 
the  final  abolition  of  slavery. 

»  Hefele  IV.  670. 


§77.  SLAVERY.  337 

The  church,  as  the  organ  of  that  spirit,  proclaimed  ideas  and 
principles  which,  in  their  legitimate  working,  must  root  out 
ultimately  both  slavery  and  tyranny,  and  bring  in  a  reign  of 
freedom,  love,  and  peace.  She  humbled  the  master  and  elevated 
the  slave,  and  reminded  both  of  their  common  origin  and  des- 
tiny. She  enjoined  in  all  her  teaching  the  gentle  and  humane 
treatment  of  slaves,  and  enforced  it  by  the  all-powerful  motives 
derived  from  the  love  of  Christ,  the  common  redemption  and 
moral  brotherhood  of  men.  She  opened  her  houses  of  worship 
as  asylums  to  fugitive  slaves,  and  surrendered  them  to  their 
masters  only  on  promise  of  pardon.1  She  protected  the  freed- 
men  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  liberty.  She  educated  sons  of 
slaves  for  the  priesthood,  with  the  permission  of  their  masters, 
but  required  emancipation  before  ordination.2  Marriages  of 
freemen  with  slaves  were  declared  valid  if  concluded  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  condition  of  the  latter.3  Skves  could  not  be 
forced  to  labor  on  Sundays.  This  was  a  most  important  and 
humane  protection  of  the  right  to  rest  and  worship.4  No 
Christian  was  permitted  by  the  laws  of  the  church  to  sell  a 
slave  to  foreign  lands,  or  to  a  Jew  or  heathen.  Gregory  I. 
prohibited  the  Jews  within  the  papal  jurisdiction  to  keep  Chris- 
tian slaves,  which  he  considered  an  outrage  upon  the  Christian 
name.  Nevertheless  even  clergymen  sometimes  sold  Christian 

1  Synod  of  Olermont,  A.  D.  549.    Hefele  ILL  5 ;  comp.  II.  662. 

*  Fifth  Synod  of  Orleans,  549;  Synod  of  Aachen,  789;  Synod  of  Francfurt, 
794.    See  Hefele  JIL  3,  666,  691.    If  ordination  took  place  without  the  mas- 
ter's consent,  he  could  reclaim  the  slave  from  the  ranks  of  the  clergy.    Hefele 
IV.  26. 

*  Hefele  HI.  574,  575,  611.    The  first  example  was  set  hy  Pope  Callistng 
(218-228),  who  was  himself  formerly  a  slaye,  and  gave  the  sanction  of  the 
Eoman  church  to  marriages  between  free  Christian  ladies  and  slaves  or  low- 
born men.    Hippolytns,  Ihilosoph.  IX.  12  (p.  460  ed.  Duncker  and  Schneide- 
win).    This  was  contrary  to  Eoman  law,  and  disapproved  even  hy  Hippolytus. 

*  The  16th  Synod  of  Toledo,  693,  passed  the  following  canon:   "If  a  slave 
works  on  Sunday  hy  command  of  his  master,  the  slave  becomes  'free,  and  the 
master  is  punished  to  pay  30  solidi.    If  the  slave  works  on  Sunday  without 
command  of  his  master,  he  is  whipped  or  must  pay  fine  for  his  skin.    If  a 
freeman  works  on  Sunday,  he  loses  his  liberty  or  must  pay  60  solidi ;  a  priest 
has  to  pay  double  the  amount1'    Hefele  UL  349 ;  comp.  p.  355. 


338  FOUETH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

slaves  to  Jews.  The  tenth  Council  of  Toledo  (656  or  657) 
complains  of  this  practice,  protests  against  it  with  Bible  pas- 
sages, and  reminds  the  Christians  that  "the  slaves  were  re- 
deemed by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  that  Christians  should 
rather  buy  than  sell  them."1  Individual  emancipation  was 
constantly  encouraged  as  a  meritorious  work  of  charity  well 
pleasing  to  God,  and  was  made  a  solemn  act.  The  master  led 
the  slave  with  a  torch  around  the  altar,  and  with  his  hands  on 
the  altar  pronounced  the  act  of  liberation  in  such  words  as 
these :  "  For  fear  of  Almighty  God,  and  for  the  cure  of  my 
soul  I  liberate  thee;"  or:  "In  the  name  and  for  the  love  of 
God  I  do  free  this  slave  from  the  bonds  of  slavery." 

Occasionally  a  feeble  voice  was  raised  against  the  institution 
itself,  especially  from  monks  who  were  opposed  to  all  worldly 
possession,  and  felt  the  great  inconsistency  of  convents  holding 
slave-properiy.  Theodore  of  the  Studium  forbade  his  convent 
to  do  this,  but  on  the  ground  that  secular  possessions  and  mar- 
riage were  proper  only  for  laymen.2  A  Synod  of  Chalons, 
held  between  644  and  650,  at  which  thirty-eight  bishops  and 
six  episcopal  representatives  were  present,  prohibited  the  selling 
of  Christian  slaves  outside  of  the  kingdom  of  Clovis,  from  fear 
that  they  might  fall  into  the  power  of  pagans  or  Jews,  and  he 
introduces  this  decree  with  the  significant  words :  "  The  highest 
piety  and  religion  demand  that  Christians  should  be  redeemed 
entirely  from  the  bond  of  servitude/' s  By  limiting  the  power 
of  sale,  slave-properfy  was  raised  above  ordinary  property,  and 
this  was  a  step  towards  abolishing  this  property  itself  by  legiti- 
mate means. 

Under  the  combined  influences  of  Christianity,  civilization, 
and  oeconomic  and  political  considerations,  the  slave  trade  was 
forbidden,  and  slavery  gradually  changed  into  serfdom,  and 

*  Hefde  m.  103 ;  comp.  IV.  70.    Balmes,  p.  108. 

*  Overbeck,  L  c.,  p.  219. 

3  Gone.  Cabilonense,  can.  9:  "Pietatis  est  maxima  et  rdigivnis  infaitus,  ut 
captwitatis  mncfdum  omnino  a  Chrislianis  redimatur."  The  date  of  the  Council 
is  uncertain,  see  Mansi,  Cone.  X.  1198 ;  Hefele,  III.  92. 


?  78.  FEUDS  AND  PRIVATE  WAES.  339 

finally  abolished  all  over  Europe  and  North  America.    Where 
the  spirit  of  Christ  is  there  is  liberty. 

NOTES. 

In  Europe  serfdom  continued  till  the  eighteenth  century,  in  Russia  even  till 
1861,  when  it  was  abolished  by  the  Czar  Alexander  II.  In  the  United  States, 
the  freest  country  in  the  world,  strange  to  say,  negro  slavery  flourished  and 
waxed  fat  under  the  powerful  protection  of  the  federal  constitution,  the  fugitive 
slave-law,  the  Southern  state-laws,  and  "King  Cotton,"  until  it  went  out  in 
blood  (1861-65)  at  a  cost  far  exceeding  the  most  liberal  compensation  which 
Congress  might  and  ought  to  have  made  for  a  peaceful  emancipation.  But 
passion  ruled  over  reason,  self-interest  over  justice,  and  politics  over  morals 
and  religion.  Slavery  still  lingers  in  nominally  Christian  countries  of  South 
America,  and  is  kept  up  with  the  accursed  slave-trade  under  Mohammedan, 
rule  in  Africa,  but  is  doomed  to  disappear  from  the  bounds  of  civilization. 


§  78.  Feuds  and  Private  Wars.    The  Truce  of  God. 

A.  KLTTCKHOHN  :  Geschichte  des  Gottesfriedens.    Leipzig  1857. 
HENRY  (X  LEA  :  Superstition  and  Force.    Essays  on  the  Wager  of  Law — 
the  Wager  of  BattU^the  Ordeal— Torture.    Phila.  1866  (407  pages). 

Among  all  barbarians,  individual  injury  is  at  once  re- 
venged on  the  person  of  the  enemy;  and  the  family  or  tribe  to 
which  the  parties  belong  identify  themselves  with  the  quarrel 
till  the  thirst  for  blood  is  satiated.  Hence  the  feuds1  and  pri- 
vate wars,  or  deadly  quarrels  between  families  and  clans.  The 
same  custom  of  self-help  and  unbridled  passion  prevails  among 
the  Mohammedan  Arabs  to  this  day. 

The  influence  of  Christianity  was  to  confine  the  responsibility 
for  a  crime  to  its  author,  and  to  substitute  orderly  legal  process 
for  summary  private  vengeance.  The  sixteenth  Synod  of  Toledo 
(693)  forbade  duels  and  private  feuds.2  The  Synod  of  Poitiers, 
A.  D.  1000,  resolved  that  all  controversies  should  hereafter  be 
adjusted  by  law  and  not  by  force.3  The  belligerent  individuals 

1  Saxon  Fa&fh,  or  FasgU,  Danish  fdde,  Dutch  veede,  German  Fehde,  lowLatin 
fcada  or  faidia.  Compare  the  German  Fdnd,  the  English  fend.  Du  Gauge 
defines /awfa :  "  Grams  et  aperfa  inimicitia  ob  coedem  diquasn  suseepta,  and  refers. 
to  his  dissertation  De  Privatis  Betiis. 

»  Hefele  HI.  340,  *  IV.  655,  689. 


340  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

or  tribes  were  exhorted  to  reconciliation  by  a  sealed  agreement, 
and  the  party  which  broke  the  peace  was  excommunicated.  A 
Synod  of  Limoges  in  1031  used  even  the  more  terrible  punish- 
ment of  the  interdict  against  the  bloody  feuds. 

These  sporadic  efforts  prepared  the  way  for  one  of  the  most 
benevolent  institutions  of  the  middle  ages,  the  so-called  "Peace " 
or  "  Truce  of  God/7  *  It  arose  in  Aquitania  in  France  during 
or  soon  after  a  terrible  famine  in  1033,  which  increased  the 
number  of  murders  (even  for  the  satisfaction  of  hunger)  and 
inflicted  untold  misery  upon  the  people.  Then  the  bishops  and 
abbots,  as  if  movfed  by  divine  inspiration  (hence  "the  Peace  of 
God"),  united  in  the  resolution  that  all  feuds  should  cease  from 
Wednesday  evening  till  Monday  morning  (afenos  quartce  vespera 
usque  ad  se<wndamfe)«iam,  indpiente  luce)  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation.2 In  1041  the  archbishop  Eaimbald  of  Aries,  the  bishops 
Benedict  of  Avignon  and  Nitard  of  Nice,  and  the  abbot  Odilo 
of  Clugny  issued  in  their  name  and  in  the  name  of  the  French 
episcopate  an  encyclical  letter  to  the  Italian  bishops  and  clergy, 
in  which  they  solemnly  implore  them  to  keep  the  heaven-sent 
Treuga  Dei,  already  introduced  in  Gaul,  namely,  to  observe  peace 

1  Treuga.  Dei,  Gottesfriede.    See  Da  Cange  sub.  "  ZVm,  Treuga,  sen  Tretw 
_Dei "   The  word  occurs  in  several  languages  (tr&uga,  tregoa,  trauva,  tr&ua,  fr&xj). 
It  comes  from  the  same  root  as  the  German  freu,  Treue,  and  the  English  true, 
troth,  truce,  and  signifies  a  pledge  of  faith,  given  for  a  time  to  an  enemy  for 
keeping  peace. 

2  Eoduli  Glaber,  a  monk  of  Cluny,  gives  a  graphic  account  of  this  famine 
and  the  origin  of  the  Peace  movement,  in  his  Hist&ria  wi  Temporis*  lib.  IV. 
c.  4  and  5  (in  Migne's  Patrol  Tom.  142,  fol.  675-679).    Hefele,  IV/698,  traces 
the  movement  to  Provence  and  to  the  year  1040  with  a  "perhaps,"  but  Eodulf 
Glaber  makes  it  begin  "  in  Aquitanice  partibus  anno  incarnati  Christi  mfllesimo 
tricesimo  tertio,"  from  whence  it  spread  rapidly  "per  Ardatensem  provineiam, 
atgue  Lugdunensem,  sLcqm  per  universam  Burgwndiam^  atque  in  uUimas  Francia 
paries"  (Migne,  L  c.  fol  678).    Comp.  lib.  V.  1  (foL  693) :  "primitos  in  partibus 
Aquitanicis,  delude  pavlatim  per  universum  GaHiarum,  territorium"  etc.    He  also 
reports  that  the  introduction  of  the  Peace  was  blessed  by  innumerable  cures 
and  a  bountiful  harvest.     "JSrat  insfar  ittius  antiqui  Mosaici  magni  Jubftoei." 
Balderich,  in  his  Chronicle  of  the  Bishops  of  Cambray,  reports  that  in  one  of 
the  French  synods  a  bishop  showed  a  letter  which  fell  from  heaven  and  ex- 
horted to  peace.    The  bishop  of  Cambray,  however,  dissented  because  he 
thought  the  resolution  could  not  be  carried  out 


S79.  THE  ORDEAL.  341 

between  neighbors,  friends  or  foes  on  four  days  of  the  week, 
namely,  on  Thursday,  on  account  of  Christ's  ascension,  on 
Friday  on  account  of  his  crucifixion,  on  Saturday  in  inemorv  of 
his  burial,  on  Sunday  in  memory  of  his  resurrection.  They 
'  add:  "All  who  love  this  Trciiga  Dei  we  bless  and  absolve; 
but  those  who  oppose  it  we  anathematize  and  exclude  from  the 
church.  He  who  punishes  a  disturber  of  the  Peace  of  God 
shall  be  acquitted  of  guilt  and  blessed  by  all  Christians  as  a 
champion  of  the  cause  of  God." 

The  peace-movement  spread  through  all  Burgundy  and 
France,  and  was  sanctioned  by  the  Synods  of  Jfarbonne  (1054), 
Gerundum  in  Spain  (1068),  Toulouse  (1068),  Troyes  (1093), 
Eouen  (1096),  Rheims  (1136),  the  Lateran  (1139  and  1179),  etc. 
The  Synod  of  Clermont  (1095),  under  the  lead  of  Pope  Urban 
II.,  made  the  Truce  of  God  the  general  law  of  the  church. 
The  time  of  the  Truce  was  extended  to  the  whole  period  from 
the  first  of  Advent  to  Epiphany,  from  Ash  Wednesday  to  the 
close  of  the  Easter  week,  and  from  Ascension  to  the  close  of 
the  week  of  Pentecost;  also  to  the  various  festivals  and  their 
vigils.  The  Truce  was  announced  by  the  ringing  of  bells.1 

§  79.  The  Ordeal. 

GMMM:  Deutsche  JRechtsatterthumer,  Gottingen  1828,  p.  908  sqq.  HJL- 
DENBRAOT):  Die  Purgatio  canonica  et  vulgaris,  Munchen  1841. 
UNGBB  :  Der  g&ricMicfie  Zweikampf,  Gottingen  1847.  PHILIPPS  : 
Ueber  die  Ordalien,  Mtinchen  1847.  DAHN:  Studienzur  Gesch.  der 
germ.  Gottesurtheile,  Munchen  1867.  PFALZ:  Die  german.  Ordalien, 
Leipz.  1865.  HEITBY  C.  LEA  :  Superstition  and  Force,  Philad.  1866, 
p.  175-280.  (I  have  especially  used  Lea,  who  gives  ample  authori- 
ties for  his  statements.)  For  synodical  legislation  on  ordeals  see 
HEFELE,  vols.  in.  and  IV. 

Another  heathen  custom  with  which  the  church  had  to  deal, 
is  the  so-called  JUDGMENT  OF  GOB  or  OKDEAL,  that  is,  a  trial 

1  See  farther  details  in  Mansi  XIX.  549  sq. ;  Kluckhohn;  Hefele  (IV.  696- 
70%  780) ;  and  Mejer  in  Henrog'  V.  319  sqq. 


342  FOUETH  PEEIOD.    A.  D.  590-1041. 

of  guilt  or  innocence  by  a  direct  appeal  to  God  through  nature.1 
It  prevailed  in  China,  Japan,  India,  Egypt  (to  a  less  exteiit  in 
Greece  and  Home),  and  among  the  barbaric  races  throughout 
Europe.2 

The  ordeal  reverses  the  correct  principle  that  a  man  must  be 
held  to  be  innocent  until  he  is  proved  to  be  guilty,  and  throws 
the  burden  of  proof  upon  the  accused  instead  of  the  accuser. 
It  is  based  on  the  superstitious  and  presumptuous  belief  that 
the  divine  Euler  of  the  universe  will  at  any  time  work  a 
miracle  for  the  vindication  of  justice  when  man  in  his  weakness 
cannot  decide,  and  chooses  to  relieve  himself  of  responsibility 
by  calling  heaven  to  his  aid.  In  the  Carlovingian  Capitularies 
the  following  passage  occurs :  "  Let  doubtful  cases  be  determined 
by  the  judgment  of  God.  The  judges  may  decide  that  which 
they  clearly  know,  but  that  which  they  cannot  know  shall  be  re- 
served for  the  divine  judgment.  He  whom  God  has  reserved  for 
his  own  judgment  may  not  be  condemned  by  human  means." 

The  customary  ordeals  in  the  middle  ages  were  water-ordeals 
and  fire-ordeals;  the  former  were  deemed  plebeian,  the  latter 
(as  well  as  the  duel),  patrician.  The  one  called  to  mind  the 
punishment  of  the  deluge  and  of  Pharaoh  in  the  Red  Sea;  the 
other,  the  future  punishment  of  hell.  The  water-ordeals  were 
either  by  hot  water,3  or  by  cold  water;4  the  fire-ordeals  were 

1  From  the  Anglo-Saxon  ordad  or  ordda  (from  or=wr,  and  dcd=stheU)  - 
German:  UrtheU  or  Gotteswrthett ;  Dutch:  oorded;  French:  ord&d;  L.  Lat.; 
ordalium,  ordak,  ordela.  See  Du  Cange  sub.  ordela,  aqua  frigidce  judidum, 
Dudlvm,  Ferrum  candens;  Skeat  (Etymol.  Did.  of  the  Engl  Leung.)  sub.DeoJ. 

*  See  the  proof  in  Lea,  who  finds  in  the  wide  prevalence  of  this  custom  a 
confirmation  of  the  common  origin  of  the  Aryan  or  Indo-germanic  races. 

8  Judidum  aquas  fervemtis,  ceneum,  cacabus,  caldaria.  This  is  probably  the 
oldest  form  in  Europe.  See  Lea,  p.  196.  It  is  usually  referred  to  in  the  most 
ancient  texts  of  law,  and  especially  recommended  by  Hincmar  of  Eheims,  as 
combining  the  elements  of  water — the  judgment  of  the  deluge — and  of  fire — 
the  judgment  of  the  last  day.  The  accused  was  obliged,  with  his  naked  arm* 
to  find  a  small  stone  or  ring  in  a  boiling  caldron  of  water  (this  was  called  in 
German  the  Kesselfang),  or  simply  to  throw  the  hand  to  the  wrist  or  to  the 
elbow  into  boiling  water.  See  Lea,  p.  196  sqq. 

*  Judiciiun  aqucefrigidos.    It  was  not  known  in  Europe  before  Pope  Eugenius 


g  79.  THE  ORDEAI*  343 

either  by  hot  iron/  or  by  pure  fire.2  The  person  accused  or 
suspected  of  a  crime  was  exposed  to  the  danger  of  death  or 
serious  injury  by  one  of  these  elements :  if  he  escaped  unhurt — 
if  he  plunged  his  arm  to  the  elbow  into  boiling  water,  or  walked 
barefoot  upon  heated  plough-shares,  or  held  a  burning  ball  of 

II.  (824-827),  who  seems  to  have  introduced  it.  The  accused  was  bound  with 
cords,  and  lowered  with  a  rope  into  a  reservoir  or  pond,  with  the  prayer  (St. 
Dunstan's  formula) :  *'Let  not  the  "water  receive  the  body  of  him  who,  released 
from  the  weight  of  goodness,  is  upborne  by  the  wind  of  iniquity."  It  was 
supposed  that  the  pure  element  would  not  receive  a  criminal  into  its  bosom. 
It  required  therefore  in  this  case  a  miracle  to  convict  the  accused,  as  in  the 
natural  order  of  things  he  would  escape.  Lea  (p.  221)  relates  this  instance 
from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum :  *4  In  1083,  during  the  deadly  struggle 
between  the  Empire  and  the  Papacy,  as  personified  in  Henry  IV,  and  Hiide- 
brand,  the  imperialists  related  with  great  delight  that  some  of  the  leading 
prelates  of  the  papal  court  submitted  the  cause  of  their  chief  to  this  ordeal. 
After  a  three  days'  fast,  and  proper  benediction  of  the  water,  they  placed  in  it 
a  boy  to  represent  the  Emperor,  when  to  their  horror  he  sank  like  a  stone. 
On  referring  the  result  to  Hildebrand,  he  ordered  a  repetition  of  the  experi- 
ment, which  was  attended  with  the  same  result  Then,  throwing  him  in,  as  a 
representative  of  the  Pope,  he  obstinately  floated  during  two  trials,  in  spite  of 
all  efforts  to  force  him  under  the  surface,  and  an  oath  was  exacted  from  them 
to  maintain  inviolable  secrecy  as  to  the  unexpected  result"  James  I.  of 
England  was  a  strict  believer  in  this  ordeal,  and  thought  that  the  pure  element 
would  never  receive  those  who  had  desecrated  the  privileges  of  holy  baptism. 
Even  as  late  as  1836,  an  old  woman,  reputed  to  be  a  witch,  was  twice  plunged 
into  the  sea  at  Hela,  near  Danzig,  and  as  she  persisted  in  rising  to  the  surface, 
she  was  pronounced  guilty  and  beaten  to  death.  See  Lea,  p.  228  and  229. 

1  Judicium  ferri  or  fern  candentis.  A  favorite  mode,  administered  in  two 
different  forms,  the  one  by  six  or  twelve  red-hot  plough-shares  (wmeres  igniti), 
over  which  the  person  had  to  walk  bare-footed;  the  other  by  a  piece  of  red- 
hot  iron,  which  he  had  to  carry  for  a  distance  of  nine  feet  or  more.  See  Lea, 
p.  201  sq. 

*  The  accused  had  to  stretch  his  hand  into  a  fire ;  hence  the  French  proverb- 
ial expression :  tlj'en  mettrais  la  main  au  feu,"  as  an  affirmation  of  positive 
belief.  Sometimes  he  had  to  walk  bare-legged  and  bare-footed  through  the 
flames  of  huge  pyres.  Petrus  Igneus  gained  his  reputation  and  surname  by 
an  exploit  of  this  kind.  See  examples  in  Lea,  p.  209  sqq.  Savonarola  pro- 
<posed  this  ordeal  in  1498  to  his  enemies  in  proof  of  his  assertion  that  the 
church  needed  a  thorough  reformation,  and  that  his  excommunication  by  Pope 
Alexander  VI,  was  null  and  void,  but  he  shrunk  from  the  trial,  lo*t  his  cause, 
and  was  hanged  and  burned  after  undergoing  frightful  tortures.  He  had  not 
the  courage  of  Hu<*  at  Constance,  or  Luther  at  Worms,  and  his  attempted  re* 
formation  left  nothing  but  a  tragic  memory. 


344  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

iron  in  his  hand,  without  injury,  he  was  supposed  to  be  declared 
innocent  by  a  miraculous  interposition  of  God,  and  discharged ; 
otherwise  he  was  punished. 

To  the  ordeals  belongs  also  the  judicial  duel  or  battle  ordeal. 
It  was  based  on  the  old  superstition  that  God  always  gives  vic- 
tory to  the  innocent1  It  was  usually  allowed  only  to  freemen. 
Aged  and  sick  persons,  women,  children,  and  ecclesiastics  could 
furnish  substitutes,  but  not  always.  Mediaeval  panegyrists 
trace  the  judicial  duel  back  to  Cain  and  Abel.  It  prevailed 
among  the  ancient  Danes,  Irish,  Burgundians,  Franks,  and 
Lombards,  but  was  unknown  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  before 
William  the  Conqueror,  who  introduced  it  into  England.  It 
was  used  also  in  international  litigation.  The  custom  died  out 
in  the  sixteenth  century.2 

The  mediaeval  church,  with  her  strong  belief  in  the  miracu- 
lous, could  not  and  did  not  generally  oppose  the  ordeal,  but  she 
baptized  it  and  made  it  a  powerful  means  to  enforce  her  authority 
over  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  people  she  had  to  deal  with. 
Several  councils  at  Mainz  in  880,  at  Tribur  on  the  Rhine  in 
895,  at  Tours  in  925,  at  Mainz  in  1065,  at  Auch  in  1068,  at 
Grau  in  1099,  recognized  and  recommended  it;  the  clergy, 
bishops,  and  archbishops,  as  Hincmar  of  Rheims,  and  Burck- 
hardt^of  Worms,  and  even  popes  like  Gregory  VII.  and 
Calixtus  II.  lent  it  their  influence.  St.  Bernard  approved  of 
the  cold-water  process  for  the  conviction  of  heretics,  and  St. 
Ivo  of  Chartres  admitted  that  the  incredulity  of  mankind 
sometimes  required  an  appeal  to  the  verdict  of  Heaven,  though 

1  Tacitus  (German,  cap.  7)  reports  of  the  heathen  Germans:  "[Deim] 
adesse  bdlantibus  credwnt." 

9  See  Lea,  p.  75-174.  The  wager  of  battle,  as  a  judicial  institution,  must 
not  be  confounded  with  the  private  duel  which  has  been  more  or  less  cus- 
tomary among  all  races  and  in  all  ages,  and  still  survives  as  a  relic  of  bar- 
barism, though  misnamed  ''the  satisfaction  of  a  gentleman/'  The  judicial 
duel  aims  at  the  discovery  of  tratli  and  the  impartial  administration  of  justice, 
while  the  object  of  the  private  duel  is  personal  vengeance  and  reparation  of 
honor. 


2  79.  THE  OEDEAL.  345 

such  appeals  were  not  commanded  by  the  law  of  God.  As  late 
as  1215  the  ferocious  inquisitor  Conrad  of  Marburg  freely  used 
the  hot  iron  against  eighty  persons  in  Strassburg  alone  who 
were  suspected  of  the  Albigensian  heresy.  The  clergy  pre- 
pared the  combatants  by  fasting  and  prayer,  and  special  liturgi- 
cal formulas ;  they  presided  over  the  trial  and  pronounced  the 
sentence.  Sometimes  fraud  was  practiced,  and  bribes  offered  and 
taken  to  divert  the  course  of  justice.  Gregory  of  Tours  men- 
tions the  case  of  a  deacon  who,  in  a  conflict  with  an  Arian 
priest,  anointed  his  arm  before  he  stretched  it  into  the  boiling 
caldron;  the  Arian  discovered  the  trick,  charged  him  with 
using  magic  arts,  and  declared  the  trial  null  and  void;  but  a 
Catholic  priest,  Jacintus  from  Ravenna,  stepped  forward,  and 
by  catching  the  ring  from  the  bubbling  caldron,  triumphantly 
vindicated  the  orthodox  faith  to  the  admiring  multitude,  de- 
claring that  the  water  felt  cold  at  the  bottom  and  agreeably 
warm  at  the  top.  When  the  Arian  boldly  repeated  the  experi- 
ment, his  flesh  was  boiled  off  the  bones  up  to  the  elbow.1 

The  Church  even  invented  and  substituted  new  ordeals, 
which  were  less  painful  and  crud  than  the  old  heathen  forms, 
but  shockingly  profane  according  to  our  notions.  Profanity 
and  superstition  are  closely  allied.  These  new  methods  are 
the  ordeal  of  the  cross,  and  the  ordeal  of  the  eucharist.  They 
were  especially  used  by  ecclesiastics. 

The  ordeal  of  the  cross2  is  simply  a  trial  of  physical  strength. 
The  plaintiff  and  the  defendant,  after  appropriate  religious  cere- 
monies, stood  with  uplifted  arm  before  a  cross  while  divine 
service  was  performed,  and  victory  depended  on  the  length  of 
endurance.  Pepin  first  prescribed  this  trial,  by  a  Capitulary  of 
752,  in  cases  of  application  by  a  wife  for  divorce.  Charte- 

*  De  Gloria  Martyrwn  L  81.    Lea,  p.  198. 

1  Jktdiciwn  cnusis,  or  store  ad  crucem,  J&euseaprobe.  A  modification  of  it  was 
the  trial  of  standing  with  the  arms  extended  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  In  this 
way  St.  Lioba,  abbess  of  Bischoffeheim,  vindicated  the  honor  of  her  convent 
against  the  charge  of  impurity  when  a  new-born  child  was  drowned  In  the 
neighborhood.  Lea,  p.  231. 


346  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

magiie  prescribed  it  in  cases  of  territorial  disputes  which  might 
arise  between  his  sons  (806).  But  Louis-le-D£bonnaire,  soon 
after  the  death  of  Charlemagne,  forbade  its  continuance  at  a 
Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  816,  because  this  abuse  of  the 
cross  tended  to  bring  the  Christian  symbol  into  contempt.  His 
son,  the  Emperor  Lothair,  renewed  the  prohibition.  A  trace 
of  this  ordeal  is  left  in  the  proverbial  allusion  to  an  experimentum 
enteis. 

A  still  worse  profanation  was  the  ordeal  of  consecrated  bread 
in  the  eucharist  with  the  awful  adjuration  :    "  May  this  body 
and  blood  of*  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  a  judgment  to  thee  this 
day."1    It  was  enjoined  by  a  Synod  of  Worms,  in  868,  upon 
bishops  and  priests  who  were  accused  of  a  capital  crime,  such  as 
murder,  adultery,  theft,  sorcery.    It  was  employed  by  Cautinus, 
bishop  of  Auvergne,  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  century,  who 
administered  the  sacrament  to  a  Count  Eulalius,  accused  of 
patricide,  and  acquitted  him  after  he  had  partaken  of  it  without 
harm.    King  Lothair  and  his  nobles  took  the  sacrament  in 
proof  of  his  separation  from  Walrada,  his  mistress,  but  died 
soon  afterwards  at  Piaeenza  of  a  sudden  epidemic,  and  this  was 
regarded    by  Pope   Hadrian    II.  as    a   divine   punishment. 
Eudolfus  Glaber  records  the  case  of  a  monk  who    boldly 
received  the  consecrated  host,  but  forthwith  confessed  his  crime 
when  the  host  slipped  out  of  his  navel,  white  and  pure  as  be- 
fore.   Sibieho,  bishop  of  Speier,  underwent  the  trial  to  clear 
himself  of  the  charge  of  adultery  (1049).    Even  Pope  Hilde- 
brand  made  use  of  it  in  self-defense  against  Emperor  Henry 
IV.  at  Canossa,  in  1077.    "Lest  I  should  seem,"  he  said,  "to 
rdy  rather  on  human  than  divine  testimony,  and  that  I  may 
remove  from  the  minds  of  all,  by  immediate  satisfaction,  every 
scruple,  behold  this  body  of  our  Lord  which  I  am  about  to 
take.    Let  it  be  to  me  this  day  a  test  of  my  innocence,  and 
may  the  Omnipotent  God  ifcis  day  by  his  judgment  absolve  me 
w  co»p«ro&,eor^ 


279.  THE  ORDEAL.  347 

of  the  accusations  if  I  am  innocent,  or  let  me  perish  by  sudden 
death,  if  guilty."  Then  the  pope  calmly  took  the  wafer,  and 
called  upon  the  trembling  emperor  to  do  the  same,  but  Henrv 
evaded  it  on  the  ground  of  the  absence  of  both  his  friends  and 
his  enemies,  and  promised  instead  to  submit  to  a  trial  by  the 
imperial  diet. 

The  purgatorial  oath,  when  administered  by  wonder-working 
relics,  was  also  a  kind  of  ordeal  of  ecclesiastical  origin.  A 
false  oath  on  the  black  cross  in  the  convent  of  Abington,  made 
from  the  nails  of  the  crucifixion,  and  derived  from  the  Emperor 
Constantine,  was  fatal  to  the  malefactor.  In  many  cases  these 
relics  were  the  means  of  eliciting  confessions  which  could  not 
have  been  obtained  by  legal  devices. 

The  genuine  spirit  of  Christianity,  however,  urged  towards 
an  abolition  rather  than  improvement  of  all  these  ordeals. 
Occasionally  such  voices  of  protest  were  raised,  though  for  a 
long  time  without  effect.  Avitus,  bishop  of  Vienne,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  remonstrated  with  Gundobald 
for  giving  prominence  to  the  battle-ordeal  in  the  Burgundian 
code.  St.  Agobard,  archbishop  of  Lyons,  before  the  middle 
of  the  ninth  century  (he  died  about  840)  attacked  the  duel  and 
the  ordeal  in  two  special  treatises,  which  breathe  the  gospel 
spirit  of  humanity,  fraternity  and  peace  in  advance  of  his  age.1 
He  says  that  the  ordeals  are  falsely  called  judgments  of  God; 
for  God  never  prescribed  them,  never  approved  them,  never 
willed  them  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  he  commands  us,  in  the  law 
and  the  gospel,  to  love  our  .neighbor  as  ourselves,  and  has  ap- 
pointed judges  for  the  settlement  of  controversies  among  men. 
He  warns  against  a  presumptuous  interpretation  of  providence 
whose  counsels  are  secret  and  not  to  be  revealed  by  water  and 
fire.  Several  popes,  Leo  IV.  (847-855),  Nicolas  L  (858-867), 


adversu*  Legem.  Gwdobadi  (L  «..  Leg.  Burgwndwmm}  et  impia  car- 
tormina  qua  per  earn  geruntrur;  and  Liber  Contra  Jtutirium  Dei.  See  his  Opera 
ed.  Baiuzius,  Paris  1666,  T.  L  107  sqq.,  300  sqq.,  and  in  Migne's 
Tom.  CIV.  1  11&-126,  and  f.  250-258  (with  the  notes  of  Baluzius). 


348  FOURTH  PERIOD.    A.  D.  590-1049. 

Stephen  YI.  (885-891).  Sylvester  II.  (999-1003),  Alex- 
ander  II.  (106l-1073i,  Alexander  III.  (1159-1181),  Colestin 
III.  (1191-1198\  Honorius  III.  (1222),  and  the  fourth 
Lareran  Council  (1215),  condemned  more  or  less  clearly  the 
euperstitious  and  frivolous  provocation  of  miracles.1  It  was 
by  their  influence,  aided  by  secular  legislation,  that  these  God- 
tempting  ordeals  gradually  disappeared  during  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries,  but  the  underlying  idea  survived  in  the 
torture  which  for  a  long  time  took  the  place  of  the  ordeal. 

§  80.  The  Torture. 

HENEY  0.  LEA:   Superstition  and  Force  (Philad.  1866),  p.  281-391. 

PATTI*  LACEOIX:  Manners,  Customs,  and  Dress  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
during  the  Renaissance  Period  (transl.  from  the  French,  N.  York 
1874),  p.  407-434  BEACE;  Gesta  Ckristi,  ch.  XV. 

The  torture  rests  on  the  same  idea  as  the  ordeal.2  It  is  an 
attempt  to  prove  innocence  or  guilt  by  imposing  a  physical  pain 
which  no  man  can  bear  without  special  aid  from  God.  When 
the  ordeal  had  fulfilled  its  mission,  the  torture  was  substituted 
as  a  more  convenient  mode  and  better  fitted  for  an  age  less 

1  "At  length,  when  the  Papal  authority  reached  its  culminating  point,  a 
vigorous  and  sustained  effort  to  abolish  the  whole  system  was  made  by  the 
Popes  who  occupied  the  pontifical  throne  from  1159-1227.  Nothing  can  be 
more  peremptory  than  the  prohibition  uttered  by  Alexander  III.  In  1181, 
Lucius  III.  pronounced  null  and  void  the  acquittal  of  a  priest  charged  with 
homicide,  who  had  undergone  the  water-ordeal,  and  ordered  him  to  prove  his 
innocence  with  compurgators,  and  the  blow  was  followed  up  by  his  successors. 
Under  Innocent  HI.,  the  Fourth  Council  of  Lateran,  in  1215,  formally  forbade 
the  employment  of  any  ecclesiastical  ceremonies  in  such  trials;  and  as  the 
moral  influence  of  the  ordeal  depended  entirely  upon  its  religious  associations, 
a  strict  observance  of  this  canon  must  speedily  have  swept  the  wBole  system 
into  oblivion.  Yet  at  this  very  time  the  inquisitor  Conrad  of  Marburg  was 
employing  in  Germany  the  red-hot  iron  as  a  means  of  condemning  his  unfor- 
tunate victims  by  wholesale,  and  the  chronicler  relates  that,  whether  innocent 
or  guilty,  few  escaped  the  test.  The  canon  of  Lateran,  however,  was  actively 
followed  up  by  the  Papal  legates,  and  the  effect  was  soon  discernible."  Lea, 
p.  272, 

*  3brfmra  from  forgwo,  to  twist,  to  torment  Itai  and  Spanish:  foriura; 
French:  forfare/  Germ.:  Jbfter. 


280.  THE  TOETUEE.  349 

superstitious  and  more  sceptical,  but  quite  as  despotic  and  in- 
tolerant. It  forms  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  history.  For 
centuries  this  atrocious  system,  opposed  to  the  Mosaic  legislation 
and  utterly  revolting  to  every  Christian  and  humane  feeling, 
was  employed  in  civilized  Christian  countries,  and  sacrificed 
thousands  of  human  beings,  innocent  as  well  as  guilty,  to  tor- 
ments worse  than  death. 

The  torture  was  unknown  among  the  Hindoos  and  the 
Semitic  nations,  but  recognized  by  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Bomans,  as  a  regular  legal  proceeding.  It  was  originally  con- 
fined to  slaves  who  were  deemed  unfit  to  bear  voluntary  testi- 
mony, and  to  require  force  to  tell  the  truth.1  Despotic  emperors 
extended  it  to  freemen,  first  in  cases  of  erimen  Icesce  majestatis. 
Pontius  Pilate  employed  the  scourge  and  the  crown  of  thorns  in 
the  trial  of  our  Saviour.  Tiberius  exhausted  his  ingenuity  in 
inventing  tortures  for  persons  suspected  of  conspiracy,  and  took 
delight  in  their  agony.  The  half-insane  Caligula  enjoyed  the 
cruel  spectacle  at  his  dinner-table.  Nero  resorted  to  this  cruelty 
to  extort  from  the  Christians  the  confession  of  the  crime  of 
incendiarism,  as  a  pretext  of  his  persecution,  which  he  intensified 
by  the  diabolical  invention  of  covering  the  innocent  victims 
with  pitch  and  burning  them  as  torches  in  his  gardens.  The 
younger  Pliny  employed  the  torture  against  the  Christians  in 

i  "Their  evidence  was  inadmissible,  except  when  given  under  torture,  and 
then  by  a  singular  confusion  of  logic,  it  was  estimated  as  the  most  convincing 
kind  of  testimony."  Lea,  283.  "The  modes  of  torture  sanctioned  by  the 
Greeks  were  the  wheel  (r/)d^of ),  the  ladder  or  rack  (xttfJuiZ),  the  comb  with 
sharp  teeth  (KOCL$OS),  the  low  vault  (KV<J>QV)  in  which  the  unfortunate  witness 
was  thrust  and  bent  double,  the  burning  tiles  (TT^V&K),  the  heavy  hog-skin 
whip  (forptxfc),  and  the  injection  of  vinegar  into  the  nostrils."  Lea,  p.  284. 
The  Bomans  used  chiefly  the  scourge.  The  instruments  of  torture  employed 
daring  the  middle  ages  were  the  rack,  the  thumbscrew,  the  Spanish  boot,  iron 
gauntlets,  heated  iron  stools,  fire,  the  wheel,  the  strappado,  enforced  sleepless- 
ness, and  various  mutilations.  Brace  says  {p.  182)  that  "nine  hundred  (?) 
different  instruments  for  inflicting  pain  were  invented  and  used."  One  tenth 
of  the  number  would  be  bad  enough.  Collections  of  these  devilish  instru- 
ments may  be  seen  in  the  London  Tower,  and  in  antiquarian  museums  on  the 
Continent. 


350  FOURTH  PEEIOD.    A.D.  590-1049. 

Bithynia  as  imperial  governor.  Diocletian,  in  a  formal  edict, 
submitted  all  professors  of  the  hated  religion  to  this  degrading 
test.  The  torture  was  gradually  developed  into  a  regular  sys- 
tem and  embodied  in  the  Justinian  Code.  Certain  rules  were 
prescribed,  and  exemptions  made  in  favor  of  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, especially  the  clergy,  nobles,  children  below  fourteen, 
women  during  pregnancy,  etc.  The  system  was  thus  sanctioned 
by  the  highest  legal  authorities.  But  opinions  as  to  its  efficiency 
differed.  Augustus  pronounced  the  torture  the  best  form  of 
proof.  Cicero  alternately  praises  and  discredits  it.  Ulpian, 
with  more  wisdom,  thought  it  unsafe,  dangerous,  and  deceitful. 

Among  the  Northern  barbarians  the  torture  was  at  first  un- 
known except  for  slaves.  The  common  law  of  England  does 
not  recognize  it.  Crimes  were  regarded  only  as  injuries  to 
individuals,  not  to  society,  and  the  chief  resource  for  punish- 
ment was  the  private  vengeance  of  the  injured  party.  But  if 
a  slave,  who  was  a  mere  piece  of  property,  was  suspected  of  a 
theft,  his  master  would  flog  him  till  he  confessed.  All  doubtful 
questions  among  freemen  were  decided  by  sacramental  purgation 
and  the  various  forms  of  ordeal.  But  in  Southern  Europe, 
where  the  Roman  population  gave  laws  to  the  conquering  bar- 
barians, the  old  practice  continued,  or  revived  with  the  study 
of  the  Roman  law.  In  Southern  France  and  in  Spain  the 
torture  was  an  unbroken  ancestral  custom.  Alfonso  the  Wise, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  in  his  revision  of  Spanish  jurispru- 
dence, known  as  Las  Side  Partidas,  retained  the  torture,  but 
declared  the  person  of  man  to  be  the  noblest  thing  on  earth,1 
and  required  a  voluntary  confession  to  make  the  forced  con- 
fession valid.  Consequently  the  prisoner  after  torture  was 
brought  before  the  judge  and  again  interrogated ;  if  he  recanted, 
he  was  tortured  a  second,  in  grave  cases,  a  third  time ;  if  he 
persisted  in  his  confession,  he  was  condemned.  During  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  the  system  of  torture  was 

1  *  La  persona  dd  home  « la  mas  noble  cosa  ddmwufo." 


\  80.  THE  TOETUEK  351 

generally  introduced  in  Europe,  and  took  the  place  of  the 
ordeal. 

The  church,  true  to  her  humanizing  instincts,  was  at  fir^t 
hostile  to  the  whole  system  of  forcing  evidence.  A  Synod  of 
Auxerre  (585  or  578)  prohibited  the  clergy  to  witness  a  torture.1 
Pope  Gregory  I.  denounced  as  worthless  a  confession  extorted 
by  incarceration  and  hunger.2  Nicolas  I.  forbade  the  new  con- 
verts in  Bulgaria  to  extort  confession  by  stripes  and  by  pricking 
with  a  pointed  iron,  as  contrary  to  all  law,  human  and  divine 
(866).3  Gratian  lays  down  the  general  rule  that  "  confessio 
cruviatibus  extorquenda  non  esi. " 

But  at  a  later  period,  in  dealing  with  heretics,  the  Roman 
church  unfortunately  gave  the  sanction  of  her  highest  authority 
to  the  use  of  the  torture,  and  thus  betrayed  her  noblest  instincts 
and  holiest  mission.  The  fourth  Lateran  Council  (1215)  in- 
spired the  horrible  crusades  against  the  Albigenses  and  TFal- 
denses,  and  the  establishment  of  the  infamous  ecclesiastico-political 
courts  of  Inquisition.  These  courts  found  the  torture  the  most 
effective  means  of  punishing  and  exterminating  heresy,  and 
invented  new  forms  of  refined  cruelty  worse  than  those  of  the 
persecutors  of  heathen  Home.  Pope  Innocent  IV.,  in  his  in- 
struction for  the  guidance  of  the  Inquisition  in  Tuscany  and 
Lombardy,  ordered  the  civil  magistrates  to  extort  from  all 
heretics  by  torture  a  confession  of  their  own  guilt  and  a  be- 
trayal of  all  their  accomplices  (1252).4  This  was  an  ominous 
precedent,  which  did  more  harm  to  the  reputation  of  the  papacy 
than  the  extermination  of  any  number  of  heretics  could  possibly 
do  it  good.  In  Italy,  owing  to  the  restriction  of  the  ecclesias- 

1  Can.  33:   "Non  licet  presbytero  nee  diacono  ad  trepdium ubi ra  torquentwr, 
s